With winter weather rolling into Happy Valley, residents prepare themselves for the harsh temperatures and conditions.
The Centre County area has already seen harsh weather conditions as well as their first snowfall in late December. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, also known as PennDOT, is gearing up and preparing for the next few winter months.
Pennsylvania spans over 250,000 miles, making preparations for these conditions difficult. Marlaine Fannin, a community relations coordinator for PennDOT , says that while they track the weather and know what is to come, they still make sure to hold many conferences and meeting to make sure that the equipment is prepared and that there is enough materials per county.
(Pictured above: Marlaine Fannin in our interview)
College Avenue, a main road in downtown State College, is home to many students and faculty alike as well as business. The busy road has hundreds of cars travel on it every single day. Due to snow and ice piling up on the road, there are more accidents in the winter than any other months.
Christopher Lohr, a Psychology student at Penn States main campus, states that driving gets incredibly dangerous and that students tend to follow the driving habits of their parents.
“Younger drivers learn from their parents and adopt learned behavior where they see how their parents drive and as they learn to drive they model their parents. As their parents get older they might not follow all the rules of the road.” Lohr claims.
Marlaine Fannin advises Centre County residents to stay home unless absolutely necessary during harsh winter conditions. It is important to stay safe and bundled up for the next few months until Happy Valley warms up again.