EMA on Recent Weather Issues

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Severe weather has caused major problems across the area the past couple of months…and the first week of July is already off to a rough start.

Muskingum County Emergency Management Agency Director, Jeff Jadwin, said this past weekend there was bad weather that caused quite a few problems in the County. The Frazeysburg-Dresden area and the Blue Rock area received almost five inches of rain. Both areas had road closures due to the debris on the roadways.

“That’s as much of a concern right now is the amount of debris that’s on the roadways. Trees that have washed out of small streams, branches, a lot of mud, gravel, leaves. Everything is on the roadway right now so the roadways are passable in some cases, but very slick, and you need to be very cautious of what’s going on,” Jadwin said.

Jadwin added that it has been an unusual year when it comes to weather. He said in the past five weeks, the County has experienced tornadoes or tornado warnings. Two days in the past week, flooding has been an issue in different parts of the County. Jadwin also said assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency would be helpful to the major roads, but the problem is meeting certain criteria for that assistance.

“They set dates. From this date to the next date that’s when damage had to occur, but with just one storm after another it’s just been unbelievably costly for everybody to maintain this,” he said.

EMA sends out alerts to phones and emails in case of emergencies such as flash flooding. Residents can sign up for the citizen alert system by going to the EMA website, www.ema.muskingumcounty.org.