Glenn Akramoff was not surprised by the ice storm on Jan. 19 that followed on the heels of snow the previous three days.

Experience informed the decision by Akramoff, the Covington Public Works director, to prepare for it even when weather forecasters were calling for warming temperatures and rain instead of the freezing rain and snow which arrived last Thursday afternoon.

“We started planning for ice even though they weren’t calling for it as early as Tuesday,” Akramoff said. “They compared it to ‘96 and I was working in the Olympia at the time. The next thing that happened (after the snow that year) was ice.”

Despite being prepared for the ice storm that led to destruction and power outages throughout the region, including Covington, Akramoff said the recovery isn’t going to be easy.

“I’d rather have two feet of snow than deal with ice,” he said. “It’s just very difficult and very risky and it’s a scary thing listening to those trees pop as you’re driving down the road.”

In addition to the efforts of Covington and Maple Valley public works crews, entities from throughout the region responded to the hazards created by the storm ranging from Washington State Patrol to Maple Valley Fire and Life Safety, Kent Regional Fire Authority and Mountain View Fire.

Covington and Maple Valley have an interlocal agreement with their public works departments, which has them aid either city if they encounter difficulty handling any problems clearing up their roads and streets. This interlocal agreement allowed them to make improvements to the roads during the summer. Covington also replaced its old four yard dump truck with a new truck retrofitted with snow and ice equipment.

Covington city staff from all departments helped support the efforts of public works crews, Akramoff said, by working 10 or 12 hour shifts in the city’s emergency coordination center on Jan. 19 and Jan. 20, taking reports of fallen trees, cable and power lines.

“All hands were on deck,” Akramoff said. “Our team certainly came together, we had people from community development out in the field, we had finance and our executive department helping to run our ECC. Everyone kicked in to help us.”

And staff worked to deal with the emergency situation created by the weather.

“We had trees fall on five homes,” Arkamoff said. “We were able to identify those fairly quickly. The maintenance crew stayed out plowing roads… until Friday at 5 p.m. because there was still slush on the roads. Most of the plowing on Friday was plowing snow away from catch basins so we wouldn’t have flooding.”

City staff worked with Puget Sound Energy to partner with Covington Christian Fellowship to open an emergency warming shelter for those still without power.

“It was about 1 p.m. on Saturday that we shut down our operations to give our guys some rest before we hit our recovery period,” Akramoff said. “We’ve kind of been supporting the shelter in minor ways over the weekend.”

Now it’s time to prepare for recovery and post-storm clean up.

“People are very patient with response. People know you’re doing your best,” Akramoff said. “People are not as patient with recovery because they want their power on, they want their cable on, they want their streets cleaned up. Recovery is the hardest because it takes the longest.”

Akramoff foresees a three week recovery period.

A full-time crew of four staff will work on clean up, but, the public works director said, Covington has also brought in temporary emergency workers to assist.

Crews will start on the west side of the city and work their way east and will go street by street with dump trucks and back hoes to clear fallen trees as well as debris. That will be followed by a street sweeper later to get smaller debris.

There could be anywhere from 1,000 to 1,500 cubic yards of debris to clean up over the coming weeks.

“When we’re in an emergency, that’s what we’re here for,” Arkamoff said. “People count on us to do our day to day activity and keep the city running. When it comes to a situation like last week, they expect us to shine… and I think every entity to PSE to all the cities to the county, to the state, all worked to make sure they did the best they could.”

In Maple Valley, crews worked to clear six inches of snow off 30 miles of streets with sand, deicer and salt, while at the same time carefully monitoring the National Weather Service updates, according to Public Works Director Steve Clark.

The public works department also kept in communication with Maple Valley Life and Fire Safety. Operations ceased on Jan. 20. Clark said the storm will cost the city approximately $30,000.

At the Maple Valley City Council’s meeting on Monday, Clark stated the city benefited from preparations that had been made during the late fall, as well as the their new maintenance facility located at Southeast 264th Street. The city purchased the 2.79 acre property for $1.1 million in November.

“Overall, I think we were well prepared to respond to this event,” Clark said. “We had the pieces of equipment ready to go. It really elevated morale.”

Meanwhile, emergency responders also had to contend with accidents in the area due to fallen trees and poor road conditions.

From Jan. 17-19 the Washington State Patrol reported 10 collisions, nearly all of them on state Route 18, which was eventually closed due to the number of fallen trees.

Kent Regional Fire Authority spokesman Kyle Ohashi stated that on Thursday, Jan. 19 he received nearly 500 non-emergency calls. Kent Fire provides service to the city of Covington.

Between Jan. 17-23 Mountain View Fire and Rescue, which serves Black Diamond and surrounding unincorporated areas, received 161 calls, when it normally receives around 20, according to department spokesman Tim Perciful.