Cold Weather Proclamation Issued By Governor

The cold win­ter weather is back with a vengeance, and it appears as though it’s going to stick around for at least a few more weeks.

On Sun­day, in response to the unusu­ally cold tem­per­a­tures, the Gov­er­nor issued a “propane emer­gency” for all of Ohio’s 88 coun­ties.

The governor’s dec­la­ra­tion allows ship­pers with valid com­mer­cial dri­ver licenses who are trans­port­ing propane or heat­ing oil to drive more hours and more con­sec­u­tive days than they nor­mally would as long as they can still do so safely.

Under nor­mal con­di­tions, com­mer­cial dri­vers are lim­ited to 10 hours per day, but that time is not lim­ited to actual dri­ving time. For instance, if a drive sits in line at a refin­ery for six hours, then they could only drive for four hours that day.

While the short­age affects propane users, con­sumers with LP or “city” gas are not affected by it.

The Williams-Defiance County Chap­ter of the Amer­i­can Red Cross is han­dling the cold by mak­ing prepa­ra­tions to set up warm­ing shel­ters. The Red Cross has agree­ments with the YMCA, schools, and churches to use them as warm­ing shelters.