Today, Mayor Cara Spencer declared a state of emergency in the City of St. Louis ahead of the winter storm expected this weekend.

The National Weather Service is forecasting severe winter weather for the City, with a reasonable possibility of snow accumulations exceeding 12 inches. The storm will be accompanied by dangerously cold temperatures in the single digits and teens, making snow removal significantly more difficult and posing a severe risk to individuals spending time outside or in unheated structures.

The declaration, which will remain active through Feb. 22, enables expanded authority in areas including emergency contracting and procurement, coordination of resources across departments, documentation of overtime and mutual aid costs for potential state or federal reimbursement, and, if warranted, implementation of travel advisories or restrictions.

"Our City departments are prepared for this weather and are well coordinated through our Winter Weather Unified Command," said Mayor Spencer. "This kind of weather is dangerous, and declaring a local state of emergency ensures that we have the tools we need at our immediate disposal, should this storm become as bad as there is currently reason to believe it could."

This is the second time Mayor Spencer has declared a state of emergency; she also did so on May 16, shortly after the tornado tore through the city.

The City of St. Louis and its partners have made 600 emergency shelter beds available day and night through Monday morning, and the Street Department has pretreated snow routes ahead of the storm. 90,000 gallons of brine have been spread on the roads as of Friday morning. A team of 90 snowplow operators is ready to work 12-hour shifts to make roads passable once snow accumulates on the roads, prioritizing arterials, secondaries, hill routes, and then residential streets as needed, in that order.

Because Street Department staff will focus on snow removal, the department will suspend all trash collection on Monday, Jan. 26, and resume with the following schedule:

• Collections scheduled for Monday, Jan. 26, will be postponed one day to Tuesday, Jan. 27.
• Collections scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 27, will be postponed one day to Wednesday, Jan. 28.
• Regularly scheduled collection will resume on Thursday, Jan. 29.