SUSQUEHANNA TOWNSHIP, DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. — Many people in central Pennsylvania might have breathed a sigh of relief when they woke up Wednesday morning and didn’t see a blanket of snow.
Despite the lack of snow in the area, the weather was still a concern for people traveling in and out of Pennsylvania.
Wherever people were headed, whether it was to hit the road or take to the sky, everyone had some place to go, but getting there Wednesday as easier for some than it was for others.
There wasn’t much snow to be seen in some parts of central Pennsylvania as Governor Tom Wolf has his eyes on other parts of the state.
“Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. This is one of those storms that appears to have moved east, and I think it has, so we might here in central Pennsylvania not get as much as we expect, but we’re still going to have a storm here,” Wolf said.
Although it didn’t look like much of a storm in central PA, the governor called a snow day for state employees in the Capital City.
“There are people who have to commute here, from far away, so we were trying to anticipate the needs and the safety requirements of all the folks who work for the state,” Wolf said.
PennDOT’s monitoring of road conditions showed not everyone in Pennsylvania remained untouched by the winter storm.
For air travelers at HIA, some flights to and from Philadelphia or Charlotte were canceled.
Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency opened up its Command Response Coordination Center to a wide mix of officials from PennDOT and the Turnpike, to the National Guard.
Of those participating, PEMA director Rick Flynn said “the state police, the attorney general’s office, the civil air patrol, the public utility commission, the department of health, the American Red Cross, department of human services, Department of Environmental Protection.”
“What we’re doing is standing ready, everybody here to make sure that wherever that happens, wherever the need is, we’re doing everything to help,” Wolf said.
There weren’t any stranded passengers seen at the airport, but the commonwealth has an app for stranded motorists.
"One of the most valuable resource, if you’re on a highway, and you get stuck, is the 511PAConnect, because that wireless emergency alert will come to you, and messages will be able to be sent to you," Flynn said.