In the order, Polis also authorized unarmed Colorado National Guard members to provide winter storm response support.
The order also allows the OEM to mobilize state resources and to make contracts and awards using Emergency Procurement Procedures.
The declaration activates Colorado’s State Emergency Operation Center and the State Emergency Operations Plan, in addition to directing the Office of Emergency Management to take “all necessary and appropriate State actions to assist the affected jurisdictions.”
“The storm is expected to develop throughout the day, and this declaration is necessary to have resources in place to support rescue efforts around the state as the storm worsens into the evening,” Polis wrote in his disaster declaration.
Because of the incoming storm, both Friday and Saturday are Pinpoint Weather Alert Days. According to FOX31 Pinpoint Weather Meteorologist Alden German, the storm track moved more north-westerly than first anticipated, leading to higher snow totals on Friday and Saturday.
The strongest wave of snowfall is anticipated Friday morning, with snowfall rates of over an inch falling each hour. The Palmer Divide could see snow falling at rates of up to 2 inches per hour overnight Friday into Saturday. The Boulder National Weather Service posted at 4 p.m. on Thursday that there are another 36 hours left of snowfall in portions of Colorado.
However, the highest impacts for the Denver metro area are expected mid-afternoon on Friday, according to the Boulder NWS. The evening commute will be heavily impacted by the winter storm.
“Drivers should be prepared for long-term closures and should avoid driving in the most impacted areas of the state for the duration of the storm.”
The Colorado Department of Transportation told motorists to avoid traveling east of Interstate 25 and south of Interstate 76 to the New Mexico and Kansas state lines into Saturday.
“The storm may look like it is leaving later this afternoon, but the next round is expected to be worse than what we have already seen,” said John Lorme, CDOT director of maintenance and operations, in a press release Thursday.
