All's Quiet on the Winter Storm Front

Wilmington employees were prepared for the first storm of the season. Turns out, there wasn’t much to be ready for.

“This was hardly a storm,” said Assistant Public Works Superintendent Jamie Magaldi. “It was mostly a little bit of snow with mostly sleet and rain. We didn’t come in on overtime, it was just business as usual. We had a few salters heading out early, but that was essentially it.”

It was a similar result for the , which did not field any calls for major accidents on Thursday.

Lt. Chris Neville said the only weather-related calls were smaller accidents.

“It was relatively quiet,” said Neville. “It was mostly rain, and there were no icing conditions. Except for a few minor incidents, there’s nothing major to report.”

One item that did come from the storm is that it was the first time the DPW has used a . The magnesium chloride replaces previously used calcium chloride.

“We’re hearing a lot of good things about it,” said Magaldi. “As we’re dropping the salt, it’s sprayed with the solution. That means it has a better tendency to stick to the road instead of bouncing. It’s more efficient and seems to be working. We just haven’t had a big storm to test it out on.”

Magaldi said there were no serious flooding issues on town roads, mainly because the conditions have been dry in recent weeks so river levels were low.

“We’re all getting a break so far from the terrible January from last year, a well-deserved break in my opinion. It’s like night and day between this January and last,” said Magaldi. “Now we’re just keeping an eye on the forecast, which is what we always do. We’ll be ready for the next storm.”