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The cold weather season has officially arrived. Temperatures are dropping drastically at night, soon forcing motorists to scrape ice off their windows each morning. Along with the change in temps, road conditions may change from day
to day.
Color-coded road condition summaries provide vehicle operators awareness of general conditions of primary roads in the immediate vicinity of Kaiserslautern Military Community installations such as the B-40, B-270, and autobahns.
The summaries do not apply to the many smaller roads throughout the KMC such as those connecting Hütschenhausen with Miesau, Bann with Landstuhl, or Enkenbach with Sembach. Additionally, road conditions in higher elevation areas, such as south of Landstuhl and in the Sembach area, may be more hazardous than the road condition summaries indicate.
“We urge personnel and their family members to use caution when traveling during this period of frequently changing weather conditions,” said Brig. Gen. Mark Dillon, 86th Airlift Wing commander.
“Though road conditions may be ‘green’ on the installations, we realize there may be more hazardous weather in outlying areas of our community. Be safe, and use your best judgment during these times of inclement weather.”
This is also important for school bus routes, as buses often have difficulty transiting areas, or temps are often very brutal for children waiting at bus stops. “Just like we do with our servicemembers, we ask parents to make that call on whether it is safe for your students to travel or wait for the bus,” General Dillon said.
Late-reporting or installation and school-closure decisions are normally made no later than 4:30 a.m. to allow adequate time to complete notifications, to include school systems and bus operators. For the same reason, any decisions made to release early are normally made by 10:30 a.m.
This allows non-mission-essential personnel to arrive home during daylight hours and permits
parents to meet children returning home from school early. However, commanders may consider early release whenever weather conditions
significantly deteriorate.
Though decisions about the schools and installations are often done together, due to the nature of the dynamic bus schedules, sometimes schools closures or early releases are done without a cancellation of the base. So parents of school-age children need to make sure to stay informed of weather conditions and contact the school if there are specific questions.
In order to stay informed about these changes, there are a variety of ways to get information on the current road condition before leaving the house.
The following phone lines are available to ensure 24-hour up-to-date information on road conditions: 480-COLD (2653) – 06371-47-2653 — and 480-TALK (8255). Dialing either number will lead callers to a voice-messaging service with three options. The first and second options inform the caller about the current road conditions and explain the different colors of road conditions.
The third option is for the KMC Straight Talk Line, which gives information about other important topics. Messages will normally consist of highly visible topics that affect the entire KMC.
“This service is provided to members of the KMC to ensure that important information is made available when it’s needed,” the general said. “For this service to be valuable, we place top priority on ensuring that it is updated regularly.”
Before leaving for work in the morning, or if there are questions on road conditions or other events check out the below resources for information.
If in doubt, all personnel are recommended to contact your chain of command as some villages may experience harsher weather and require units to make individual decisions on the safety of their personnel.
The 86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs office updates the system as needed with current road conditions, early release from schools and work, other weather-related information, and community information.
In addition to dialing 480-COLD and 480-TALK, KMC members also can listen to AFN live programming on Z-100.2 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Disk jockeys update changes regularly on the air. In addition, the Ramstein Facebook page and public Web site will also have an update of road condition posted in the upper right hand corner, which can be accessed at www.ramstein.af.mil.
