Remember the blizzard of 1993, which brought 3 feet of snow to the Northeast, engulfing cars, crippling travel and closing schools for a week in one shot?

Now, imagine a snowfall with sustained whiteout conditions topped with 1 inch of ice crippling the area this winter.Would you be prepared for a sudden snow event like this?Carbon County officials recently took part in a statewide winter weather emergency exercise called "Operation Quick Freeze" at the county emergency management agency to prepare for a disaster of this magnitude.Twenty-one volunteers gathered in the emergency operations center conference room Wednesday morning to complete the exercise, sponsored by the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, in collaboration with the National Weather Service.Groups present included the American Red Cross, Pennsylvania Department of Health, Carbon County EMA, Lehighton and Penn Forest Emergency Management coordinators, Palmerton Area School District, Pennsylvania State Police, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Carbon County Amateur Radio Club, Penn Forest Fire Company No. 1, Community Emergency Response Team, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, PEMA and Knowledge Center.The exercise was designed to help prepare organizations for potential winter storm-related catastrophic events stemming from a massive snowfall, followed by icing.Carbon was one of numerous counties across the state to participate in the drill.Audrey Wargo, of the Carbon Conservation District and the public information officer for the Emergency Operations Center of the exercise, explained that this is taking actual possible disasters and testing the volunteers' skills in assessing, organizing and finding the solutions for problems."It's an all-over exercise to make sure we're prepared in any kind of weather emergency," she said. "The preparation is to make sure everyone is taken care of and most importantly, to encourage residents to prepare themselves so emergency responders aren't taxed with some of the simpler things that residents can do to help themselves."During the exercise, PEMA issued numerous emergency situations in the county that members of the volunteer EOC staff had to work through.Emergencies resulting from a heavy snowfall included students stuck in schools, three tour buses carrying 44 people each getting stuck in the Packerton Dip on their way to Jim Thorpe, Mahoning Valley Nursing and Rehabilitation Center losing power and their backup generators not working to continue to supply oxygen to 35 residents, a Carbon County Community Transit van crashing at the intersection of routes 93 and 209 in Nesquehoning with 12 patients needing transport to the hospital, PenTeleData experiencing periodic outages, a restaurant demanding a generator so it doesn't lose its food supply and two Lehighton school buses that were attempting to get middle school students home collided into each other and 15 students were injured.Volunteers were required to identify what emergency departments were needed for the specific problem and then build plans to resolve the emergencies, including rerouting some of the 17 Pennsylvania Department of Transportation plows to clear roads, using the American Red Cross to supply food and open shelters and find companies who can supply generators for patients in need.They learned about using resources to learn proper procedures for specific elements in a situation, filing necessary requests to the state if supplies were needed and continually updating information until the emergency is resolved.Mark Nalesnik, Carbon County Emergency Management Agency coordinator, said, "This was primarily designed for interaction with the county, municipalities and primarily the school districts," and the purpose was to reach and respond to the emergencies that very well could occur this winter.The county also participates in the annual statewide spring weather exercise held between March and April.This year, the team completed the exercises electronically, using the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Knowledge Center, which helps emergency responders throughout the state locate incidents and find contacts.They also used radio operators from the Carbon County Amateur Radio Club. These operators act as an auxiliary backup in case other forms of communication are compromised during a disaster.Wargo said that in addition to emergency personnel preparing for emergencies, county residents also need to plan and prepare for emergency situations.This includes making a 72-hour kit for each member of your family, which should contain water, high-energy ready-to-eat foods and personal medications, as well as a first aid kit, blankets, a change of clothing, flashlights, a battery-operated radio and fresh batteries.PEMA has created a website to help citizens prepare for emergencies. Emergency kit checklists as well as family plan templates can be downloaded at

www.ReadyPA.org.In addition, Carbon County is part of Code RED, an electronic program aimed at keeping citizens informed during emergencies through text messages.To sign up for Code RED, go to

www.carboncounty.com and click on the button "Code RED Get it now" on the left side of the homepage.Once signed up, residents will receive critical community alerts for various types of emergencies, including severe weather warnings and issues going on in municipalities.