Bowie officials: 2,000 tons of salt, 50+ plows ready as major winter storm approaches

City of Bowie public works officials said Monday they have about 2,000 tons of road salt on hand and will deploy more than 50 pieces of equipment, including roughly 30 city plows and about 20 contractor vehicles, to respond to an incoming winter storm expected to drop more than 10 inches.

"Well, stay off the road. It's not it's not going to be safe to drive, at all, and please, just please stay home," Anh, the city's public works director, said during a briefing at the Public Works Yard. Anh said crews will begin plowing about two hours before the first snow and maintain continuous operations until streets are cleared.

The city asked residents to clear cars, trash cans and other obstacles from streets so crews can access routes. "Get those cars, get those trash cans, everything off the street," an operations staff member said, noting that quick accumulation can outpace plow progress.

Missy Marlette, the superintendent of streets, said crews have spent the week servicing vehicles, assigning routes and resting crews ahead of the storm. "So we start plowing once the snow reaches 2 inches, then we work on the main drives, the basically the snow emergency routes first," Marlette said. She added that smaller side streets and courts likely will not be cleared until several hours after the snow stops.

Officials said the city must cover about 190 miles of roadway and that contractors will supplement city crews. For townhouse and other dense communities without space to store plowed snow, staff asked residents not to shovel snow back into roadways where it will obstruct clearance.

Bowie officials also said they will post updates on multiple social media channels throughout the storm and encouraged residents to sign up for the city alert system for real-time notices and route updates. Officials urged patience as crews prioritize main routes, then secondary streets, and complete clearing as conditions allow.