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During winter storms communication is even more crucial than normal. When area roads become snow covered our road crews are not only responsible for clearing our streets, they also become part of the first responder team.

According to Marion County Emergency Management Coordinator Jeff Anderson communication and cooperation between these different entities Wednesday made it possible for first responders to be able to get to multiple rescue calls.

Anderson says an ambulance was paged to an address southeast of Pleasantville this morning for a rescue call at a residence and 911 dispatchers were informed that the emergency crews may have trouble getting to the home due to the several inches of snow that fell overnight. Anderson then contacted the Secondary Roads Department to see if any crews were in the area that could assist in clearing the way for the ambulance. Fortunately, he says there was a motor grader near by and by the time the ambulance got there they were able to access the home without an issue.

Later that morning the Knoxville Fire and Rescue Department and Indiana Township Fire and Rescue were paged out to a rescue call in Pershing where they too needed a snow plow to help clear the way. Road crews then went out of their way to make sure the ambulance could get to the address of the emergency.

Anderson says when it comes to situations like this, it’s all about working together and communicating with one another to make sure everyone can do their job and emergency calls go as smoothly as possible.

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