Snowfall Brings Hazardous Conditions

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Snowfall early Friday morning sparked a reaction statewide with schools, government, and medical facilities closing and roads deemed unsafe to drive.

In a statement from Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, the Warming Station at the BJCC South Hall re-opened early — at 12 p.m. instead of 5 p.m. Requests are also being made for meal deliveries from individuals and businesses in the Downtown area to the BJCC until 2 p.m.

All city streets in Oxford are closed; state and federal roads there remain open. Roads in Vestavia Hills became extremely hazardous but are open. In Pelham there’ve been many reports of downed power lines and power outages, according to the police department. Traffic was moving Friday morning at a crawl along I-65 south near the Shelby County airport. Birmingham City Hall is closed and UAB canceled classes and non-clinical operations; the hospital is open.

According to a tweet from Alabama Power, around 40,000 power outages have been reported state-wide, and crews are already at work trying to restore power:

  • 20,000 in the metro Birmingham area
  • 13,000 in eastern Alabama counties
  • 4,200 in western Alabama counties
  • 3,400 in south-central Alabama counties

Government and healthcare facility closures:

  • UAB announced the early closure of UAB clinics. UAB Hospital will remain open.
  • Cooper Green Mercy Health Services’ clinics, Urgent Care, and Pharmacy have closed.
  • Birmingham City Hall and Jefferson County offices will be closed for the day.

 

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Why haven’t Kansas and Alabama — among other holdouts — expanded access to Medicaid?

Only 10 states have not joined the federal program that expands Medicaid to people who are still in the "coverage gap" for health care

Once praised, settlement to help sickened BP oil spill workers leaves most with nearly nothing

Thousands of ordinary people who helped clean up after the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico say they got sick. A court settlement was supposed to help compensate them, but it hasn’t turned out as expected.

Q&A: How harm reduction can help mitigate the opioid crisis

Maia Szalavitz discusses harm reduction's effectiveness against drug addiction, how punitive policies can hurt people who need pain medication and more.

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The Gulf States Newsroom is seeking a curious, creative and collaborative professional to work with our regional team to build up engaged journalism efforts.

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