How Troy snow plow drivers prepare for Saturday's winter storm

TROY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Heavy snow fell throughout the Capital Region and beyond on Saturday night, prompting snow plows to hit the road and residents to hit the stores. Some residents spent Saturday gathering equipment to prepare for the snow, while snow plow drivers planned how they will tackle all this snow.

Joe Martin, Quality of Life Action Crew Supervisor of Streets for Troy, is also a snow plow truck driver himself. His drivers began plowing the streets around 7 p.m. Saturday night and he said they'll be out there all night long.

“Between four and 8 a.m. we have additional staffing to start funneling the guys who have been here around 16 hours," said Martin. "And we’ll be doing clean up 'til roughly 1-2 o'clock in the afternoon."

With long hours and tough conditions, this job requires utmost patience and attention.

"A lot of focus, you’d be surprised what you see out there at night. Keeping your eyes open just being observant to what's going out around you and getting the roads cleared," said Martin.

One thing the crews need to get the roads cleared is salt. However, that material became scarce earlier this week. Troy Mayor Carmella Mantello announced an emergency declaration Thursday amid a statewide salt shortage. This allowed Martin to use outside vendors to get salt for this weekend's storm.

"As you can see behind me, the bays are filled now," said Martin. "For a typically snowstorm like this, we'll probably go through 600-800 tons."

Martin said before the emergency declaration, they had less than 500 tons, now they have over 1,600 tons. Even local Troy residents stopped in hardware stores Saturday night to get salt for their own homes. Jeannette Joseph stopped inside Country True Value Hardware in Troy to pick up ice melt.

“You never know what emergency that have you have to get out and i’d like to have my driveway clear," said Joseph. “I don’t know if we’re getting 10 [inches], but I’ll be prepared."

Tyler Hogan, a manager at Country True Value Hardware, recommends people think just like that. He said Saturday was the busiest day for the store since the winter season began -- with hundreds of customers showing up throughout the day.

"It's been extremely busy, I mean we’ve had more customers today and yesterday than all of January and February," said Hogan.  

Hogan said the most popular purchase has been ice melt. He and his team estimated they had moved about 1,000 bags of rock salt in the past two days. Plus, Hogan said rock salt isn't the only thing residents should be getting to repair.

"Stock up it's better to have it and not need it then need it and not have it so definitely get your ice melt, your shovels make sure your snow blowers running, really anything else like that just so you’re prepared for the snow," said Hogan.

While residents prepared in Troy, Martin's team was getting ready to hit the roads. Martin said he does the job for one big reason.

“Safety of the residents. We’re always out there trying to make sure our residents are safe. Tonight’s going to be a lot of snowfall. Between tonight and mid morning, you know, if they don’t have to be on the streets, try not to drive," said Martin.

Martin said he hopes to have the roads cleared by early afternoon, just in time for any big game day plans on Sunday. Stick with NEWS10 for all weather updates.