The mayor is asking for residents’ patience in the long and arduous process of clearing city streets of record snowfall after Friday’s blizzard dumped up to 36 inches in Middletown.
Drew says folks who are snowed in and are becoming increasingly impatient not having seen a plow throughout the storm’s duration should know the city is working at full-tilt to dig residents out.
“It’s not hyperbolic to say this is an unprecedented storm,” Drew says.
The confluence of several events have significantly delayed cleanup. “Middletown is the fourth largest town in square miles in the state, with more than 200 roads. That means out of 169 municipalities, there are 165 towns smaller than us,” Drew says.
And that’s a lot of plowing. Add to that one-half of 1 percent of CL&P customers who are or were without power. The mayor says police and public works were diverted from clearing streets in order to clear the way for utility trucks to get power restored.
“We had to make sure all our critical infrastructure was open,” including Middlesex Hospital, three fire stations, police, Hunter’s Ambulance and other essential places.
Add to that public works crews who may have worked 29 of the last 35 hours.
Plow crews, Drew says, who have been out since 7 or 8 a.m. Friday morning, by law can work up to 17 hours then must sleep for three hours, followed by a 12-hour shift and three hours’ sleep. “These people are working away from their families in the worst blizzard we’ve seen in a generation,” Drew explains.
People didn’t heed the governor’s travel ban or the mayor’s parking ban, he said, which resulted in a total of 80 tows, again, diverting city services that should have been clearing streets.
Cars who get trapped, especially in the main thoroughfares, require police, fire and public works crews to assist. “They have to physically dig them out with shovels,” he says.
The entire center lane of Main Street, for example, is where public works piles snow 10 or more feet high, and 5 feet wide. Friday night into Saturday morning, Drew says, trucks trying to plow had to make their way around vehicles stuck on the roadway that hadn't heeded either the state or municipal road ban.
Adding to the delays, there have been two public works truck breakdowns and parts aren’t available, he says.
“We’ve had roofs cave in. We’ve had trucks going the wrong way down the highway. We’ve had traffic shut down one side of the Arrigoni bridge. In the midst of all that, we’re getting regular calls, everything that might happen on a 75-degree day,” Drew explains.
“We’re asking for people’s patience. We have everything firmly under control,” Drew said. “It just takes time.”
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