According to weather reports, Louisville can expect up to 3 inches of snow. Across the city, road crews have been salting and plowing streets, spreading over 800 tons of salt.

“When winter weather strikes, keeping residents safe on our roads is our top priority,” Abramson said in a news release.  “It’s important that we keep our city moving – students need to be in school and workers need to be on the job. Our snow team is prepared and ready to go.”

In February 2009, Louisville was hit with the worst winter storm in its history that resulted in a total of six dead and left a massive power outage with about 205,000 households and businesses in the dark.

According to the Mayor’s Office, the snow team is made up of 293 employees from four agencies — Public Works and Assets, Metro Parks, Solid Waste Management and the Metropolitan Sewer District. The squad has 169 pieces of equipment in its snow-fighting fleet, ready to treat and clear more than 1,300 miles of roads.

Highlights of the 2010-2011 snow plan include:

· The use of the brine additive IceProof. When added to the brine solution, it allows crews to pre-treat roads even when the temperature dips into single digits.

· An overnight shift for Public Works, allowing an immediate response to snow, instead of calling out crews from their homes. When winter weather isn’t a threat, crews will repair potholes and road cracks that cause potholes when traffic flow is low. The shift also helps reduce overtime.

· A real-time online snow map that allows citizens to track snow crews’ progress in their area.  Residents can enter in their address to check whether snow routes near them have been pre-treated or plowed. Simply visit www.louisvilleky.gov and enter “snow” in the Google search engine to get to the Public Works homepage and the map.

· 40,000 tons of salt available for treating roads. 15,000 tons will be on hand at seven storage facilities city-wide, including four domes. 25,000 tons will be stored underground for emergency reserve.

Brrrrr!

Yesterday’s freak weather event also resulted in 60 mph winds, flash flooding (in other parts of the state) and three tragic deaths in the Commonwealth alone.

Kaitlyn Griffin, 17, of Somerset was killed when she was hit by part of a tree split by the wind. She was standing in the street at a public apartment complex when the tree hit her head, according to police and family members.

“If there ever was a definition of a freak accident, this would apply,” said Detective Shannon Smith, spokesman for the Somerset Police Department.

Neighbors tried frantically to pull the tree away before emergency workers freed Griffin and rushed her to the Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Kaitlyn was 27 weeks pregnant, said her aunt Reddia Gadd. [Lexington Herald-Leader]

LG&E worked through the night restoring power to the 450 homes that reported outages, which means you’re most likely sitting in your warm, comfy desk chair reading this right now.

Yet according to USA Today — whose article makes no mention of Kentucky’s deaths — tens of thousands experienced blackouts across the nation, the body count jumping to 16.

The National Weather Service had more than 80 reports of wind damage, mostly in the Southeast, where Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and South Carolina reported trees toppled, power lines down and homes damaged. Gusts of 75 mph were recorded in Maplesville, Ala.

The snow was the worst to hit Iowa since 1996, said Craig Cogil, a meteorologist with the weather service there. Des Moines was buried under 16 inches. Drifts up to 6 feet high closed Interstates 80 and 35 for a second day…

We Energies said 50,000 customers lost power in southeast Wisconsin, where 19 inches of snow fell; 9,700 homes were still dark Wednesday night…

Winds of up to 50 mph knocked down a two-story Christmas tree in Champaign, Ill.

Up to 7 inches of snow fell in northeast Pennsylvania, and 50-mph winds were recorded near Pittsburgh.

Nobody knocks down a Christmas tree in this country and gets away with it — especially pussified mother nature — which is why it is so important to punish her by rejecting the Copenhagen treaty, which would make things easier for her. Santa would want it that way, America.

Flooding drowned 10 kittens and a dog at the Metro Animal Services shelter Tuesday, forcing officials to find temporary quarters for 500 dogs and cats, metro officials said.

The Metro Animal Services headquarters, which includes the local animal shelter, was under water Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Jerry Abramson said. The animals were being taken to the fairgrounds. [The Courier-Journal]

The best part? More animals have yet to drown:

Looking outside my door I noticed at the other end of my block my neighbor’s cars were already under water. I ran back inside and packed a bag. I drove around hoping to find an exit out of west Louisville. No such luck. Every thoroughfare I attempted to drive down (Broadway, River Park, Hale, Muhammad Ali, etc.) led to a pool of floodwater. I escaped through Shawnee Park, which had a lake in the basketball courts and playgrounds but saw much of the same. Motorists were driving the wrong way on one-way streets. Those desperate enough to attempt to cross a street that was clearly submerged were stuck and abandoned their vehicles. Reaction to this flash flood was mixed. Pets and stray animals played in the water with innocent children. A few people were crying because their homes were taking water. Many just stood outside.

The exit ramps to Interstate-264 were mostly flooded too, but I found a dry one going eastbound away from west Louisville. It wasn’t an original idea. Traffic was bumper to bumper so I made a U-turn and saw from the freeway’s overpass the pools, lakes and swamps of water that overtook my area of town.

For a community with a myriad of problems it hit me that west Louisville looked eerily similar to the pictures of with Hurricane Katrina. Cell phone calls and text messages from fellow west Louisville residents delivered a similar message. Though this bucket of water that doused Louisville’s West End pales in comparison to the 2005 tragedy that struck New Orleans, the black faces I stared at from my car all spoke the same fear. People wanted to know where to go, worried about spoiled food, had no transportation and felt trapped in inescapable neighborhoods. I had the same worries when the ice storm and windstorm knocked out power, leaving many west Louisville residents waiting outside convenience stores like they were in Depression-era bread lines. Does this community have a emergency plan? Does west Louisville know about it? How prepared are we for a severe natural disaster? How many more times does this shit have to happen before residents get serious?

It is no secret other parts of town have been inconvenienced, shut down and endangered by today’s flash flood. Louisville Metro suffered today not just a single area, but something about this unexpected and unavoidable situation makes me feel like I’m living in a forgotten Ward. Maybe I’m just as frustrated as you are, but more questions need to be asked. They will be.

Grinstead Drive near Cherokee Parkway:

Cherokee Park:

Those little figures in the distance are people standing atop their stranded cars.

It took me just over two hours to drive to work this morning. My apartment is 3.7 miles from the LEO office. According to MSD, we just took about six inches of rain in 75 minutes, thus setting a record for the most rainfall in such a short period.

I also realized — as did many unfortunate drivers — that downtown Louisville is a big, dirty bowl.

I first drove down Broadway from Baxter and was turned back at Barret. I saw two cars stranded under an overpass, all sorts of flashing police and fire lights, and turned back. I hit Breckinridge Street and tried the north-south throughways to get to Broadway, but every one was flooded. Two feet or so at Second and Broadway. People standing atop their stranded cars at Fourth and Broadway. I kept heading west, looking for a shot through.

The parking lot at the southeast corner of Ninth and Breckinridge seemed as good a place as any to get the hell out the way. I stopped there for about 30 minutes, listening to Francene’s radio show for updates as I watched cars give up in the median, channels about two feet deep on both sides of Ninth. I waited. And waited. I tried to head east on Kentucky and get home, but to no avail: it appears that Beargrass Creek has muscled its way up to Kentucky, Breckinridge and everything in between. By the time I got back to Second and Broadway, it was mercifully clear.

U of L has cancelled classes. The airport is closed. Local TV weatherpeople are losing their minds. Some 20,000 households are without power. MetroCall is getting 500 times their normal volume of calls. Oh, and dig this shit from MSD (via C-J):

Dislodged manholes sent raw sewage into the streets. MSD is also reporting overflows from its Jeffersontown treatment plant.

MSD advised people to avoid contact with the Ohio River, creeks, streams and drainage ditches, because they will contain sewage and storm water runoff contaminants that could make people sick

“If you, your family or your pets do come in contact with possibly contaminated water, wash it off with warm, soapy water, especially before handling food,” an agency alert said.

We’ll update Fat Lip all day with photos and stories of this ridiculous weather “event.” We encourage you to leave your stories in the comments.