LEXINGTON, Ky. — Mayor Linda Gorton acknowledged in a radio interview Thursday that Lexington’s winter weather plan is inadequate for the ice storms that have battered the city two years running and said the city will develop a new severe-weather strategy by studying how peer cities in the Midwest handle ice and extreme cold.
Speaking with WEKU host Tom Martin, Gorton detailed the scope of the city’s response to the Jan. 24 ice storm: 19,300 gallons of Beet Heet deicer, 4,600 tons of salt, 70 city vehicles, roughly 50 employees working 12-hour shifts and about 2,000 hours of overtime. Four outside contractors have cost the city $300,000 so far, and more are being brought in as they become available.
The storm, which the National Weather Service classified as a major winter event, dropped several inches of snow and significant ice accumulations across central Kentucky on Jan. 24–26 before temperatures plummeted below freezing and stayed there for more than 10 days. Gorton said the extended freeze ranks as the 12th-longest period of continuous below-freezing temperatures in Lexington’s recorded weather history…