SAGINAW COUNTY, MI (WNEM) -
Mid-Michigan braces for the local impact caused by former Hurricane Sandy, now a superstorm that stretches all the way from the Atlantic right here to our back yard.
Gusts are already pounding places in Mid-Michigan and making the commute tough.
Ice, snow and rain are not the only worries on the road. Those strong winds rolling into Mid-Michigan are invisible but they do not go unnoticed by big rig drivers.
"By being a truck driver, you take it as it comes, and the wind it gets really scary out here once and a while," said Danny Lomax, a semi-truck driver from Detroit.
Lomax topped off his tanks Monday night before his long haul back to Detroit. His load is 30,000 pounds, but he said the strong gusts can literally toss the truck around.
"It can push me into the next lane, but it's not going to tip me over, it just weighs too much," laughed Lomax.
Lonny Halo is a driver for TMC Trucking and is making his way back to Georgia. He pulled over Monday night because he ran out of hours, but he said truckers take what they do seriously, and if the winds get to be too much to handle, they'll shut it down and pull off the road.
"We like to keep it safe, you know, tend the equipment, the driver," said Lomax.
Semi-truck drivers TV5 talked to said they are at the mercy of Mother Nature. They said they won't do anything that could kill or potentially harm somebody, but they do have a job to do, and when there are high winds, they want to give a warning out there for other motorists that may be trying to pass them.
"It's best to slow down with the elements out here because you can never tell what you might run into, it's always best to slow down a little bit," said Lomax.
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