LEXINGTON, Ky. — Mayor Linda Gorton acknowledged in a radio interview Thursday that Lexington’s winter weather plan is inadequate for the ice storms that have battered the city two years running and said the city will develop a new severe-weather strategy by studying how peer cities in the Midwest handle ice and extreme cold.
Speaking with WEKU host Tom Martin, Gorton detailed the scope of the city’s response to the Jan. 24 ice storm: 19,300 gallons of Beet Heet deicer, 4,600 tons of salt, 70 city vehicles, roughly 50 employees working 12-hour shifts and about 2,000 hours of overtime. Four outside contractors have cost the city $300,000 so far, and more are being brought in as they become available.
The storm, which the National Weather Service classified as a major winter event, dropped several inches of snow and significant ice accumulations across central Kentucky on Jan. 24–26 before temperatures plummeted below freezing and stayed there for more than 10 days. Gorton said the extended freeze ranks as the 12th-longest period of continuous below-freezing temperatures in Lexington’s recorded weather history.
“We’re turning into a Midwest winter city,” Gorton told Martin. “We’ve gotta look at our peer cities and see is there anything they are doing to deal with the ice.”
The consequences have been severe. Fayette County Public Schools marked their ninth consecutive day without in-person classes Thursday, with unsafe bus routes cited as the primary obstacle. Gov. Andy Beshear on Wednesday called the condition of Lexington’s roads “unacceptable” and said the state had sent Kentucky Transportation Cabinet plows to help with cleanup. The statewide death toll from the storm has reached 22, according to the governor’s office.
Gorton drew a sharp distinction between snow, which city crews can handle, and ice, which she called far more difficult to manage. She said an industrial grader deployed this week to attack the ice was torn apart after limited use and is no longer operable. She pointed to foot-wide chunks of ice two or more inches thick still embedded in city streets.
The mayor explained that the city clears roads by a ranked priority system. Rank-one roads — major thoroughfares such as Nicholasville Road and Richmond Road that carry thousands of vehicles daily and serve hospitals and the University of Kentucky — are treated first. Crews then move to turn lanes, business corridors and school bus routes before reaching rank-four and rank-five neighborhood streets, where residents have expressed the most frustration.
Gorton said the city has long coordinated with Fayette County Public Schools to integrate bus routes into plowing priorities, but ice has complicated that effort. Schools, she noted, are responsible for their own parking lots, walkways and bus lanes, while the city handles the surrounding roads.
Asked whether the back-to-back ice storms signal a shift in the region’s climate, Gorton said two consecutive years of severe ice — after previous major ice events in 2003 and 2009 — suggest the city should expect more of the same. She said the combination of ice accumulation and prolonged below-freezing temperatures is especially punishing.
“Not only did we have ice two years in a row, but the temperature didn’t get above freezing,” Gorton said. “I just think that the combination is terrible.”
The mayor said the city plans to conduct a formal after-action review once the current response is complete, gathering input from frontline crews, residents and peer municipalities before drafting a new strategic winter weather plan. She said the previous plan, developed with Fayette County Public Schools and UK, was built around snow removal and needs to be rebuilt around ice.
Gorton also addressed a social media controversy about her own street, Beechmont Road, being plowed while neighborhood streets remained impassable. She said she never asked for special treatment and that the road is a heavily traveled cut-through between Tates Creek Road and Nicholasville Road that would be prioritized based on traffic volume regardless of who lives there.
Resident frustration has been amplified on social media, and Gorton acknowledged the anger while urging patience. She compared the challenge to chipping ice from a freezer that doesn’t defrost itself — then multiplied by millions. She said many residents still expect roads to be “magically cleared” after an extraordinary storm and noted that before social media, people were more likely to get outside and pitch in rather than direct their frustration at city government online.
“If this storm had happened in 1980, there was no social media then and people got frustrated,” Gorton said. “But I think in a way they also got out and tried to do things.”
The city’s budget for winter weather has grown significantly. Gorton said Lexington spent $2 million on storm response last year and invested another $2 million in new equipment this year, with $3.5 million budgeted overall. She said costs will continue to climb.
Gorton said she suspended enforcement of the city ordinance requiring residents to clear their sidewalks within 24 hours of a storm, calling it impractical given the ice. With temperatures forecast to rise into the 40s and 50s early next week, she said she expects significant melting that will give residents a chance to clear their own properties.
She encouraged residents who have lived in other cities with experience managing ice to share their ideas with the city.
“We’re going to start looking at this differently,” Gorton said.
