EMSA Experiences Increased Call Volume During Winter Storms

Several feet of snow from multiple winter storms caused EMSA to respond to dozens of calls within the last month.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s you’re 15th winter in Oklahoma or if this is your first month in Oklahoma, you really need to take the proper precautions when you’re outside,” Adam Paluka with EMSA said.

Paluka said EMSA receives a wide range of calls into their office. Some are slips and falls, vehicle accidents, carbon monoxide poisoning and cold exposure.

Over the past two days, Paluka said cold exposure as well as slip and falls call were up.

“At the 11 a.m. hour, we would expect at this time we would (receive) 11 fall incidents, but we only had five,” Paluka said. “But last night, when we were looking at some of the fall data, we would expect that we would have you know maybe 20 and we had 25.”

Oklahoma has experienced three snowstorms in less than a month, but Paluka said he still sees the same issue: People are not prepared with the correct cold weather gear.

“People never wear proper footwear,” Paluka said. “I can't stress this enough: If there's ice or snow on the ground, your slippers are not going to cut it. It's actually going to make the situation worse. You'd probably have more traction with your bare feet than you would with slippers.”

Paluka stressed the importance of taking the necessary precautions to prevent an injury if there are icy surfaces or snow on the ground.