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Plains Township woman’s birthday bitten by blizzard hex once again

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New Heinz ketchup advertisements inspired by ‘Mad Men’ TV series

<p>Pennsylvania State Police are asking all residents to stay off the roads as Winter Storm Stella continues her assault on the region.</p><p>Several police and fire departments are spreading the news via social media pages.</p><p>Social media pages, along with emergency broadcasts, are reporting motorists abandoning their vehicles after getting stuck in roadways.</p><p>Luzerne County EMA Director Lucy Morgan stressed that her agency does not have the official capacity to mandate motorists to stay off the road. She said her agency is encouraging people to stay off the roads &#8220;as a precautionary means.&#8221;</p><p>Emergency broadcasts indicated at approximately 1:25 p.m. that travel bans were in place for Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton.</p><p>Morgan explained an issue that crews are experience is people getting stuck in the middle of the roadway. One such vehicle, she said, got stuck near Wilkes-Barre General Hospital and prevented ambulances from entering.</p><p>While that has been an issue, Morgan said the storm itself could have been worse in the sense that the snowfall has not resulted in any major power outages to her knowledge.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve been very fortunate,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It&#8217;s not the heavy, wet storm that causes a lot of other issues.&#8221;</p><p>PPL&#8217;s outage map reported no outages in Luzerne County.</p><p>Morgan added that because some EMA staff could not make it to headquarters due to the storm, her agency is working with a &#8220;skeleton crew.&#8221;</p><p>Morgan said her agency would be on the job overnight and into Wednesday morning. She added that Luzerne County has a request through Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency for National Guard members to transport medical staff to local hospitals.</p><p>Municipalities are also beginning to submit requests for heavy equipment to assist with snow removal, Morgan said.</p><p>&#8220;Everyone needs it, and it&#8217;s hard to get that resource of heavy equipment because there&#8217;s such a demand,&#8221; she said.</p><p><ins>For more storm-related stories, please click <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/tag/stella" target="_blank">here</a>.</ins></p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Travis Kellar</p><p>tkellar@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Travis Kellar at 570-991-6389 or on Twitter @TLNews</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Updated: Troopers, Luzerne County EMA encourages motorists to stay off roadways