The blanket of snow covering the Valley from Friday’s blizzard remained piled on the streets well into Saturday — and might stay for some time, as public works crews struggle to cope with the sheer volume of cleanup work.
That’s not good news for the thousands of Valley residents wondering when the white stuff will be cleared from their roads.
Though non-essential vehicles were off of most roads Saturday, ambulance crews, police, and firefighters often found their ways to emergency calls impossible to navigate.
The plow trucks designed to come to the rescue in those cases were themselves getting stuck in snow — click the play button above to see one such truck in Shelton Saturday about 5:30 p.m. which took about a half-hour to maneuver free.
“I haven’t seen anything like this, ever,” said George Stachowicz, the supervisor of Shelton’s Highway Maintenance Department. “All our plow trucks are basically worthless now. We’re dependent on heavy equipment.”
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Some three feet of snow fell, with wind-blown drifts piling five feet or so.
To put this storm into perspective — according to Andrew Freedman, a writer at ClimateCentral.org, the infamous “Blizzard of ’78” took about three days to do what the Blizzard of 2013 did in less than 24 hours.
“This storm dumped up to 10 inches in three hours in southern Connecticut on Friday night,” Freedman noted. Click here to read his full story.
NPR posted a fascinating video from NASA showing the Blizzard of 2013 was actually the forced marriage of two “jet streaks.” The child they birthed has you stuck in your home as you read this. Click here for the NPR story and must-watch video.
Much of Shelton’s road system was impassable Saturday, though main roads downtown like Howe Avenue, Center Street, and Coram Avenue were plowed. The same could be said for Ansonia, Derby, Oxford and Seymour, where many secondary and side roads hadn’t been touched by 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
The city of Shelton sent an automated message to residents about 8: 30 p.m. thanking residents for their “continued cooperation and patience as we cope with this unprecedented storm.”
The amount of snow simply overwhelmed the population — including the crews who plowed roads for 30 hours straight.
“We just can’t get around with our vehicles,” Stachowicz said. “Our trucks are getting stuck left and right.”
To make progress, he said the city was calling in contractors who have heavy equipment to help clear the roads — but that will take time.
“It’s just a slow go,” Stachowicz said. “It’s going to be a couple days before we get to everybody.”
Even in Derby, which is dwarfed in size by Shelton, plow crews could not keep up.
“The Public Works Department is doing the best they can under the circumstances,” the city’s Office of Emergency Management posted on Facebook Saturday afternoon. “Please, please be patient. They will clear all roads it is just going to take time. There is over two feet of snow out there.”
The Derby Department of Public Works also asked residents to be mindful of where private snow plow drivers are leaving snow from driveways, saying at least two accidents had been caused by the problem.
High Street in Derby seemed to be a particular problem Saturday afternoon, according to radio dispatches.
Meanwhile, members of Derby Storm Rescue Ambulance used a Polaris Ranger, an off-road vehicle to transport patients to Griffin Hospital during the height of the blizzard Friday night.
The Ranger was used to take staff to and from Griffin Hospital Saturday, Storms Chief David Lenart said.
Derby also had pay loaders moving snow, to put a dent in the piles so plow trucks could then do a pass. The progress was slow compared to past storms, and was a major concern to Valley Indy Facebook readers from Derby Saturday.
Back in Shelton, Stachowicz said about 4:40 p.m. that crews were “pretty well caught up on” main roads and were beginning the slow process of opening up secondary streets.
The department is also sending vehicles to respond to fire and medical emergencies, he said.
The department’s fleet — 25 trucks, four pay-loaders, two backhoes — were all well-prepped for the storm and in service into Saturday, he said, but the amount of snow and the fact that it fell so quickly meant problems.
“Everything’s out,” he said. “But even the backhoes are having trouble. it came so fast that the streets are just lost. “
Paramedics responding to medical calls frequently had to wait for plows to clear the way for them Saturday, or when that wasn’t possible, park on roads that had been cleared and proceed on foot.
“It’s so deep, to push the snow back, we can’t even push it back because it just falls back into the road,” Stachowicz said. “We’re doing the best we can.”
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Shelton Police Chief Joel Hurliman said Saturday afternoon that residents should stay off city roads.
“This was a bad one,” Hurliman said of the blizzard, calling it worse than the blizzard of 1978.
“There’s no reason to go out unless you work in a hospital, fire department, or police department,” the chief said.
A state of emergency has been in effect in Shelton since 3:30 a.m. Saturday.
He urged residents to practice extreme caution while shoveling or using snow blowers.
Shelton had one death Saturday morning, when a 49-year-old man collapsed while clearing snow.
Carbon monoxide poisoning is a real concern during the clean up as well, Hurliman said.
Crews all over the lower Valley responded to scores of carbon monoxide scares Saturday. It was unclear how many people were actually treated for exposure.
In fact, lower Valley police, EMS and firefighters did not get a break from Friday 11:30 p.m. until at least 7:15 p.m. Saturday, the time at which this sentence was written.
Example: Shelton firefighters were dispatched to a Capitol Drive address about 6:40 p.m. to what was initially reported as a house fire.
According to emergency radio dispatches, crews arrived to find a vehicle fire that they extinguished before it could extend to the home. They had begun clearing from the scene by about 7:15 p.m.
And while firefighters were at that call, ambulances were on the way to two other emergency calls.
Conditions Saturday are better than they were Friday and early Saturday.
Some police officers in SUVs were stranded on Shelton roads overnight Saturday, Hurliman said.
“They were sitting in SUVs, unable to move,” he said.
Luckily, Hurliman said he did not hear of any serious crime nor arrests taking place Friday or Saturday.
Police are responding to calls, “but we make take awhile,” he said.
In Ansonia, the snow also resulted in city plow trucks getting stuck several times, according to Eileen Krugel, the public information officer for Ansonia’s office of emergency management.
Like the rest of the lower Valley — and the majority of the state — plenty of roads in Ansonia were still packed with snow Saturday night.
“The snow is just outrageous,” Krugel said.
She said public works was doing the best it could — and wouldn’t mind some outside help, either.
“If the National Guard offers to come we’ll take the help,” she said. “We will accept any help we can get.”
Plow crews would work by hitting main roads first, she said.
“They start at the larger arteries and work their way in,” Krugel said. “You go for places where you have your highest amounts of travel. It wouldn’t make sense to do a dead-end street before you did Hill Street,” she said.
She said emergency management officials were also trying to coordinate with public works trucks to help ambulances and fire trucks get to calls — of which there were plenty.
Krugel asked Ansonia residents to be sure to clear their furnace vents of snow. Firefighters have been called to several calls for carbon monoxide alarms going off in homes.
“There’s been a number of them that came in,” Krugel said, but no injuries reported.
She also asked residents to clean off the tops of any fire hydrants in their neighborhoods.
Ansonia officials would discuss whether to keep their emergency operations center open to monitor storm cleanup and come to a decision Saturday evening, she said.
Ansonia residents also used the Valley Indy’s Facebook page to ask about roads that had not been plowed.
With only one power outage during the storm — which was restored — there will probably not be a need to open any shelter for Ansonia residents, Krugel said.
Those with non-emergency needs should call Ansonia police at 203 – 735-1885.
In Seymour, First Selectman Kurt Miller told the Valley Indy Saturday night that his goal is to have the town’s roads passable so people can get to work on Monday.
Click here to read a Code Red message Miller issued about 6 p.m.
Miller said about 8:15 p.m. that most of the town’s major roads were passable — he said he had just driven down most of Skokorat Street, Mountain Road, some of Great Hill Road, and around downtown.
Miller said Seymour was facing problems similar to other Valley communities — none of the town’s smaller plow trucks are big enough to clear the snow, and even the town’s seven large dump trucks are getting stuck.
And, he said, “When one truck gets stuck, it takes two or three other trucks to get it out. We’re trying to double the trucks up as best as we can to try to push more snow.”
He said he’s heard of “lots of rumors flying around” about trucks being broken down or out of gas, but asserted they’re not true.
“That is simply not the case,” Miller said.
Seymour was calling in contractors with heavy equipment overnight to help, Miller said, and four large excavators would be clearing roads Sunday.
“We still have a lot of work ahead of us,” he said, adding that he’d be meeting with public works officials Sunday morning and issue another Code Red message.
Oxford First Selectman George Temple issued a message at about 4 p.m. Saturday saying he expects all town roads to be cleared of snow by midnight.
Temple said public works employees have been working for 30 hours straight to clear more than 36 inches of snow on town roads.
They’ve been hampered by mechanical breakdowns — a theme in the lower Valley during this blizzard.
The state of emergency in Oxford will remain until 12 p.m. Sunday.
All non-essential vehicles should remain off the roads until then, Temple said.