Hamilton County first responders have been bracing for impact and ensuring they're prepared to respond when a forecasted winter storm is expected to sweep through the Tri-State Sunday into Monday.At the county's Emergency Communications Center, director Andy Knapp said staff would be on the phone to answer 911 calls no matter what comes."The 911 operation, regardless of what's going on in the outside world, has to continue to operate," Knapp said.The director said the center answers calls for and facilitates responses in 48 municipalities across Hamilton County, all of which could be impacted by the storm.He said the facility also facilitates communication and planning between Ohio's municipalities and their partners across the Tri-State's urban area security initiative."Our employees, when they're hired from day one, we tell them you have to come to work. I mean, we're an essential function of the government and we take pride in that," Knapp said.RELATED | Winter storm begins on SundayIn the county, individual fire and EMS stations have been monitoring the forecast.Colerain Township Assistant Fire Chief Shane Packer said they would increase staff and bring in additional command staff if the storm was severe enough.He said the additional command staff would allow them to take some of the call volume burden off the dispatch center."What we'll do is have someone from command staff come in and help with the dispatching of units," Packer said. "The county will let us know the number of calls we have at different locations, we will log those, and we will start self-assigning our units."Packer said firefighters and medical staff have warming kits ready to go as temperatures drop, they've reallocated resources to place a four-wheel-drive support unit at each station and their large apparatus vehicles have chain systems equipped to increase traction on icy roads.PREVIOUS | Crews preparing for winter weather with tons of salt, dozens of snow plow driversKnapp said people should be mindful about calling 911 to help alleviate the potential avalanche of requests for assistance.He said, for example, that emergency services can't restore a region's power that's a call to the power company. But if there's a power line down threatening to spark a fire, that would definitely be worth a call to the dispatch center.