Mid-Missouri residents preparing for ice storm
A quarter inch of ice is predicted to coat mid-Missouri this weekend and Columbia residents are hitting the grocery store, stocking up on supplies and food.
“Bread, eggs, milk, water, things to get them through (the storm),” Mark Dodds, a Hy-Vee store manager said.
The store shelves had been thinned of inventory around lunchtime Thursday, but Dodds’ staff kept refilling the essentials as quickly as they could.
“We try to be active. We try to watch the weather the best we can rather than be reactive and it usually works in our benefit,” Dodds said. “Sometimes a storm will catch us by surprise and we will be out of things but for the most part we’ve got the right people in place doing the orders and projecting far enough out. We’ve done this a long time and served Columbia a long time and we’ve got a pretty good idea of what our customers’ needs are and make sure we have the product available for them.”
Hy-Vee is an employee-owned store according to Dodds who said while they will not close for the storm, they also will not require their employees to go to work if they don’t feel comfortable driving during the inclement weather.
“We’ll open bare-bones, skeleton crew if we have to,” Dodds said. “If we can make it in, we do what we can (for the citizens of Columbia).”
Dodds said compared to the December storm, people seem to be getting ready earlier for this weekend’s storm.
“I think it’s been forecasted far enough out that we had a pretty big day yesterday and we’ve already seen a pretty big day today,” Dodds said. “I think people are getting prepared ahead of time. I think the other one caught all of us by surprise and we had a lot more people the day of coming in trying to get their shopping done.”
ABC 17 News partners with Hy-Vee, helping to program the store’s severe weather radios for sale.
“In this day and age when we have the technology to keep us informed, it is another tool that gives you up to date weather,” Dodds said. “If there’s severe weather coming through, it actually has an alarm on it that can keep you informed and keep you prepared.”
ABC 17 News spoke with hardware stores around the city, and a majority are running in little to no stock of generators and salt.
The Boone County Fire Protection District wants to remind residents that have generators or are trying to buy some to use the generators outside not inside.
