Carbon County commissioners on Thursday issued a proclamation officially declaring Jan. 23, when the East Coast was smothered with snow from Winter Storm Jonas, as a disaster emergency.

They had issued a declaration the morning of Jan. 23, as increasingly heavy snow continued to blanket the county. It allows the county to better coordinate snow clearing efforts with municipalities, and lay the groundwork for applying for reimbursements through the Federal Emergency Management Agency."We were lucky. We were going to hold off, but as the weekend went on, things got worse," Commissioners' Chairman Wayne Nothstein said of the declaration."We thought we'd better submit a proclamation just in case things did get bad that we wouldn't have an issue with providing services, if we had to go and get additional equipment or emergency salt purchases. It's was more precautionary than anything else," he said.One thing the declaration did not do was to restrict travel.Nothstein said only the governor has the power to impose travel bans. The county, however, urged people to stay off the roads during and immediately after the storm.The declaration authorizes the emergency management coordinator to "take all appropriate action needed to alleviate the effects of this disaster, to aid in the restoration of essential public services, and to take any other emergency response action deemed necessary."The declaration also authorizes the gathering of information, including the costs of temporary workers, equipment and supplies.The information will be sent to the state Emergency Management Agency, which is compiling similar information from other counties to determine whether and how it will be bale to apply for federal reimbursement.Jonas dropped 16 to 21 inches of snow, according to unofficial totals released by the National Weather Service, on Carbon County between late Jan. 22 and late Jan. 23.