Workers battle cold weather
Strapped into a harness of cables and hooks and clutching a ladder, Jim Stanley of Smithfield smoothed huge sheets of paper advertising McDonald’s sandwiches to a billboard towering alongside Route 51. It didn’t matter that the thermometer barely rose out of the single digits. Stanley said he had a list of five billboards to complete Thursday for LAMAR Outdoor Advertising. Red-faced but smiling, his next stop was in the Laurel Mountains, where he expected even colder air.
“When it gets real cold like this, my tape’s freezing,” he said, so he mixed antifreeze with the adhesive, which is similar to wallpaper paste, to seal images of hot sandwiches on a cold billboard.
For Stanley, the work didn’t stop because of Thursday’s cold, and he simply took it slow on the slippery ladders and fought off the biting wind with layers of clothing, headgear and gloves.
Arctic air from northern Canada has gripped the northeastern United States, including southwestern Pennsylvania, for more than a week, sending most people indoors. According to the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, the high temperature recorded at Pittsburgh International Airport on Thursday was 11 degrees.
Those who make their living outdoors have no choice but to brave the extreme cold and daunting wind-chill factors that forecasters predict will continue into the weekend. In fact, the weather service does not forecast temperatures to exceed the freezing mark of 32 degrees until Wednesday.
The weather service expects partly sunny conditions today, with highs in the upper teens and lows of 5 to 10 above. Clouds are in Saturday’s forecast, with highs in the lower 20s and lows in the lower teens.
While Thursday’s temperatures were low, they have been lower. The record low temperature in Uniontown is minus-14 degrees, recorded in 1936, according to the weather service. On the other end of the mercury, just four years ago, the area recorded a record high of 69 degrees.
But local residents who work outdoors would have been happy with just Thursday’s average high of 39 and low of 19.
Asked how he keeps going on an unusually frigid day, Mark Shipek of Ed & Mark’s Locksmith of Uniontown pointed to his heavy-duty coveralls.
Between calls, with Dave Metts accompanying him in the locksmith’s panel truck, Shipek said the work continues 20 out of 24 hours a day, despite the weather.
“It’s tough. All my jobs are outside,” he said.
Shipek said the most common cold weather calls come from motorists with frozen door locks and those who have locked their keys in their car or lost them in the snow.
Postal carriers are well known for making their rounds in all conditions, and Keith Adams of the U.S. Postal Service in Uniontown is no exception. He stopped momentarily near the Uniontown Country Club to warm his fingers at a postal truck’s dashboard heater and admitted he was freezing.
Adams said it’s most important to dress for the elements, a practice he said he has learned to accept during his 35 years on the job.
“I’ve been doing it for so long, I’m used to it,” he said.
Two women from the First Christian Church in Perryopolis said they no longer could put off the task of removing the Christmas decorations from the building, inside and out.
“We kept waiting for a warm day, but it didn’t get any warmer,” Elaine Hutchinson said.
Talking while she quickly unwound garland from the railing at the church’s front stairs, Lynn Baker said the decorations needed to come down before an event planned for this weekend.
Emergency personnel have to respond no matter what the weather, and trooper Brian Burden confirmed business as usual for state police at the Uniontown station. Burden said the station’s activity is average, and the cold has not stopped people from breaking the law.
“Everything is about the same as it usually is. Our guys are doing traffic stops and running patrols as usual,” he said.
Rick Adobato, director of operations for Fayette EMS, said the ambulance service, based in Fayette County, is busier than usual.
“Our call volume since last week was up 20 percent. I can’t attribute that all to the cold, but last Friday was what we believe our busiest day ever,” he said.
Adobato attributed many of the recent calls to cold, flu and intestinal illnesses, as well as traffic accidents on slippery roadways.
He said when the temperature hovers around zero degrees, ambulance personnel have to be especially mindful of keeping the ambulances and garages, as well as the intravenous fluids and other medications, warm. He said crews also have to be careful to bundle patients in transit between buildings and the ambulance.
Firefighters have a tougher job in the cold, in particular with freezing water.
Uniontown Capt. Chuck Coldren said firefighters have to watch out for their equipment freezing up and be careful of ice on the ground and streets when they fight a fire in low temperatures or even respond to traffic accidents. Coldren said a firefighter’s turnout gear with an extra pair of socks and a sweatshirt usually is enough clothing, but they try to rotate taking breaks in the trucks to keep warm in the extreme weather.
Utility workers often end up alongside emergency personnel in the all-too-familiar scenario of a car striking a utility pole and knocking out power to nearby homes.
“It’s a normal part of our business to be outside in inclement weather and emergency situations,” said Allen Staggers, an Allegheny Power spokesman. “We are experienced in adapting to the weather, and our people know what to do. We take special precautions to make sure we dress appropriately for the work that needs done.”
Staggers said the line workers who primarily work outside have regular safety meetings with reminders on what to do during extreme cold and hot weather.
On call this week, Staggers said he has logged no big problems for the utility company related to the cold. He said the dry, light snow helps limit outages, which he said are more likely to result from vehicle accidents.
Staggers gave a few tips on efficient use of electricity at a time when heating systems are working especially hard. He advised keeping a furnace’s airway clear by making certain draperies and furniture are not in the way of registers and checking for clean furnace filters. He noted that running kitchen and bathroom exhaust fans can draw heat out of the home, leaving the door of an attached garage open can cause a cold draft, and opening draperies and blinds at sunny windows can make use of solar heat.