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Localities prone to severe winter weather events should take advantage of the off-season to review and revise their existing winter weather plans, reflect on last season’s successes and incorporate new strategies to areas that need improvements. Use these tips to help prepare for winter seasonal disasters during the off-season.

Focus on snow removal contracts in the summer.

• Think through what your locality’s snow removal agency will need from a facilities standpoint – what equipment will be needed to plow a narrow street with parked cars compared to clearing a parking lot or plowing a highway?
• Develop relationships with contractors ahead of time to build accountability, and consider offering signing and performance-based incentives.
• Bring contractors into your off-season training exercises; they should be engaged and integrated with your snow team.
• Inspect contractor’s equipment during the off-season. Install any GPS or tracking systems to ensure quick deployment when severe winter weather hits.
• See more tips on implementing best practices for snow removal contracts.

Before the start of winter, develop or review severe winter weather response and snow removal plans. 

• Conduct at least an annual review of your severe winter weather response and recovery plans prior to the start of winter, when conditions are non-stressful.
• Discuss and plan for the best and worst case scenarios, and consider developing different plans to accommodate for different levels of winter weather severity. In New York City, for example, the department of sanitation (DSNY) has a snow storm plan for 1-3 inches, 3-6 inches, and over 6 inches.
• Ask yourself, “What if?” and identify and budget for how many snowplows, crew members, tons of salt and other special resources will be needed in different scenarios. Determine the point at which contracts for additional resources will need to kick-in.

Keep Staff Up-to-Date on Training

• At least once per year, hold a table top exercise and one full-scale exercise where snow plow drivers are behind the wheel and run through the entire disaster response process.
• Snow plow drivers should take a refresher training course each fall to ensure they are familiar with any new equipment and changes to standard operating procedures.

Build and maintain relationships with local, regional and state level appointed and elected officials. 

• Mayors, city managers, county administrators, council members and, if needed, the governor, can assist in spreading urgent messages about severe winter weather, road closures, travel bans and advisories, and snow removal updates.
• Local agencies responsible for snow removal should consider assigning a staff member to be the communications liaison to local and state appointed and elected officials.

Have a plan to keep cars off streets, especially in urban areas.

• Use PSAs during the off-season and before the start of winter to notify residents that on-street parking will be restricted during a major snow event. During a storm, use social media, radio and local media to notify residents when they need to move cars from streets, and also when travel bans are implemented.
• If necessary, work with the governor’s office and leaders from surrounding jurisdictions to get the word out regionally.

Know what you can and can’t be reimbursed for in advance.

• In the off-season, consider creating pre-developed templates for each eligible activity that outline the information FEMA requires; line items could include who was operating a specific plow, on what roadway, when and how many tons of salt it dumped.
• As an example of the eligible activities and documentation requirements requested by FEMA for snow assistance, see the presentation distributed to counties by the state of Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) that outlines eligible agencies, functions and documentation required by counties in the state to submit for FEMA reimbursement after Winter Storm Stella in March 2017.