What Does Snow Emergency Mean?

A municipal snow emergency includes several components. How do you know there is one? What is it for? What are your responsibilities?

With heavy snow forecast later today and tomorrow, you need to know there are several similarities between Lower Macungie Township and Macungie's regulations, so let's start here.

The purpose of declaring a snow emergency is to provide priority plowing so that some main routes would be passable in a severe storm. Those routes are marked with red and white signs on posts or utility poles.

Each municipality designates when the emergencies are called. Lower Macungie states this is likely to occur when 6 inches or more of snow are forecast. That's probably safe to say for the borough as well. Residents of both should check WFMZ-TV or several popular area radio stations for notification. Lower Macungie also will announce snow emergencies.

Depending on the street, no parking may be designated on one or both sides. Vehicles must be removed before the designated start time.  Snow tires or tire chains must be used on vehicles driving during this period. Residents of both also are asked not to put out trash or recycling containers.

For Macungie, the entire length of Main Street from the Upper Milford to the Lower Macungie boundaries is designated. Five other routes are named on the borough's Web site. Residents whose vehicles are displaced by the emergency may park at the Borough Hall or Macungie Institute lots.

Fines per incident for noncompliance are set at $15 plus costs if cars are not removed from an emergency route and $25 plus costs for vehicles traveling without snow tires or chains.

The township has some major differences in its plan, including many more designated routes and much higher fines. Township officials acknowledged a deficiency in their emergency plan and on Jan. 6 revamped some sections.

Among them, offenders may pay up to $1,000 per incident plus the cost of towing if they are parked on a route or drive without snow tires or chains. Many more routes have been added -- now totaling 103 -- as emergency services officials have suggested these are necessary for reaching residents who report fires or medical emergencies during a storm. The list is included on the township Web site.

And, although sidewalk shoveling is not a part of snow emergency route regulations, borough and township residents are required to clear their walks within 24 hours of the end of a snow or ice storm. Just a friendly reminder.

So if you have locked yourself out of your house in a snowstorm without your coat, you have a snow emergency. If you're a motorist stuck in a snowdrift in subzero weather, you have a snow emergency. If you're a student who hasn't done his homework in anticipation of a snow day but it didn't snow, you also have a snow emergency, but one of a different kind.

But now you know the ins and outs of an official municipal snow emergency.