North Texas, Super Bowl fans brace for arctic blast

North Texas, Super Bowl fans brace for arctic blast


TxDOT trucks prepare to leave Amarillo Monday evening for the Dallas-Fort Worth area
to assist with winter weather roadway problems.

Gordon Dickson
Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
Jan. 31, 2011

ARLINGTON -- A worst-case scenario is developing for traffic during Super Bowl week as a fierce winter storm packing a half-inch of sleet and up to two inches of snow is expected to arrive in North Texas on Tuesday, possibly as early as 3 a.m., according to the National Weather Service.

Although the precipitation may last 12 hours or less in the Metroplex, with three days of sub-freezing air temperatures expected to follow, a moment of truth is arriving for Super Bowl planners. They have promised the region could handle a major ice storm, and keep the major roads open between Arlington, Fort Worth and Dallas.

Mother Nature, it appears, is trying to call their bluff.

"Some us have been at this for close to four years, so we are prepared for the events of the week, including weather," said Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments and a member of the Super Bowl Host Committee.

"The biggest issue we have out of our control in transportation is the weather. It's the probably the part we have worked on the most."

Massive storm

The winter weather in North Texas is part of a massive storm engulfing a third of the U.S., and making travel treacherous.

In Wisconsin, residents who plan to drive to Dallas-Fort Worth to watch their beloved Green Packers play the Pittsburgh Steelers Feb. 6 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington are being urged not to leave until Wednesday afternoon, after a blizzard has passed.

Fort Worth-based American Airlines expects hundreds of cancellations Tuesday as the "immense" snowstorm advances, said spokesman Tim Smith. American also waived rebooking penalties in certain cities.

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines said it scrubbed 550 flights scheduled for Tuesday as a winter storm swept across the Midwest and toward the Northeastern U.S., and the number of cancellations "will rise" by the morning, spokesman Anthony Black said.

The Atlanta-based carrier also issued a waiver to let travelers rebook flights without penalty.

Sleeping on cots

Meanwhile, in North Texas, commuters and visitors alike can expect to wake up to a hard rain that likely will turn to ice on the roads as the temperature dips below freezing, most likely in the morning.

The effort to keep priority corridors open for Super Bowl traffic -- Interstate 30 and Texas 360, to name a couple -- will be massive.

Nearly 800 employees of the Texas Department of Transportation and North Texas Tollway Authority have been called into service. Their task is to patrol Metroplex highways beginning as early as 10 p.m. Monday night, aggressively spotting and treating any roads that appear to be on the verge of forming ice.

The timing will be tricky, transportation department spokesman Val Lopez said, because the de-icing material can be either a granular material or a liquid and it can be washed away during a rainstorm. The key is to wait until the rain turns to sleet, and then aggressively pre-treat the highways with anti-icing material before the sleet hardens.

Both agencies have asked their maintenance employees to work longer shifts. Most of the workers are already based in Dallas-Fort Worth, but the state transportation department is also calling in up to 82 other workers who normally do their jobs on highways elsewhere in the state -- including Amarillo, Atlanta, Brownwood and Childress.

In all, about 529 transportation department employees and 250 tollway authority employees likely will be on the job.

When they're not ice-busting on the roads, those out-of-town workers will sleep in cots at transportation department maintenance offices, where they will be fed and paid overtime for their trouble until the winter weather danger has passed, said Brian Barth, transportation department deputy engineer for the Fort Worth district.

When they're on duty, those workers will patrol the highways in large trucks, armed with liquid and granular forms of magnesium chloride, an anti-icing agent designed to keep roads above the freezing mark while not harming the environment.

"TxDot has enough material to get us through a several-day event, and we can get more if needed," Barth said.

Employees were trained last month on where to use the anti-icing equipment. The emphasis will be on roads such as I-30, Texas 360, Texas 180 (Division Street) and Farm Road 157 (Collins Street) and Texas 121/183 (Airport Freeway) from downtown Fort Worth to Dallas/Fort Worth Airport.

But all highways in the region that need treatment will get it, Barth said.

The Super Bowl is expected to bring in about a quarter million visitors this week, many of whom are getting their first look at the Metroplex. Leaders in the region want to be in the rotation for future Super Bowls, so they want to prove to the world that they can handle icy roads.

In 2000, an ice storm in Atlanta ruined many Super Bowl festivities and the big game hasn't been back since.

Optimistic

As news of impending bone-chilling weather spread on Monday, retailers around Sundance Square remained optimistic that Pittsburgh Steelers fans, who likely will stay close to their team in downtown fort Worth, will shrug off sleet and freezing rain.

At Earth Bones, 308 Main St., manager Darlin Inkelaar said a woman from Pittsburgh told her she hadn't seen the ground up there since October.

Reciting the old saw about Texas weather, Inkelaar predicted: "This will blow through by the weekend."

Leslie Distler, manager/buyer for Leddy's Ranch at Sundance Square, 410 Houston St., brought in extra employees for Super Bowl week and plans to have all 15 of them working.

"Our doors will be open, and we'll be here smiling," she said.

Glenn Elliott, owner of Tobacco Lane on the Square, 512 Main St., said he built his cigar and wine inventory 30 percent above normal. The weather report made him only slightly anxious about sales. Whatever he doesn't sell this week will go in the next few months, Elliott said.

"I'm more worried about people, including my employees, getting to the place safely in all that stuff," he said. "That's the important thing."

Sundance Square folks say they are not too concerned about the weather. They have their own maintenance to clear streets and sidewalks, and as far as bad weather on local businesses, Tracy Gilmour, director of marketing, said, "Weather is always a challenge but we are ready. Lots of guests downtown are within walking distance."

Weather shouldn't discourage cold-weather fans from Pittsburgh and Green Bay who are accustomed to harsh winter weather.

Shelter needs help

With sub-zero wind chills and icy precipitation expected to grip North Texas this week, the Arlington Life Shelter is making a public appeal for help with cold-weather gear.

The homeless shelter, which normally houses about 80 each night, is expecting additional 30 or 40 people with the extreme cold weather on tap this week.

The shelter is asking for sweatshirts (all sizes), hats (adult sizes), gloves (adult sizes) toilet paper, paper towels and cough drops.

"We pass these items out throughout the winter season but we have been passing out a lot of stuff this winter," Mario Salazar, a receptionist with the shelter. "We really need warming layers to go under coats. Most of them are going to be out there throughout the day looking for work or doing something outside."

But Salazar said the shelter will stay open during the day if there is extreme cold.

Green Bay versus Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl... in Dallas... in the snow.

How absolutely poetic.

It is absolutely otherworldly.

How long before the people of Arlington get pissed about this? It's their city, not Dallas.

From Wiki:

Arlington is a city in Tarrant County, Texas (USA) within the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area. According to the 2010 census estimate, the city had an estimated population of 380,084, making it the third largest municipality in the Metroplex. Arlington is the seventh-largest city in Texas and the 49th largest city in the United States.

Located approximately 12 miles (19 km) east of downtown Fort Worth and 20 miles (32 km) west of downtown Dallas, Arlington is home to the University of Texas at Arlington, the Texas Rangers' Ballpark in Arlington, Cowboys Stadium, the International Bowling Campus (which houses the United States Bowling Congress, International Bowling Museum and the International Bowling Hall of Fame), the headquarters for American Mensa, and the theme parks Six Flags Over Texas (the original Six Flags) and Hurricane Harbor. The city borders Kennedale, Grand Prairie, Mansfield and Fort Worth, and surrounds the smaller communities of Dalworthington Gardens and Pantego. Arlington is the headquarters of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Region IV.

Oh hell... that's just a light dusting here...

Yeah, here in Minn it's the same way. People shrug and carry on.