After the snow stopped falling Thursday, the region started digging out. Some areas received more than three feet of snow and crews are continuing today to clear blocked roads.
The first major storm of the season brought waist-high snow to the Northeast. As cleanup continues today, local officials are asking for the public’s help.
Snow emergencies are being activated – requiring motorists to dig out their vehicles.
In Glens Falls, where more than 30 inches of snow fell, a snow emergency expired at 7 a.m. Mayor Dan Hall says the city has not yet determined whether to extend it as crews focus on the downtown.
“We’re trying to plan on moving the snow out of the downtown area to open up the sidewalks and so on so that’s what the plan is and we’ll talk about it today,” said Hall.
Snow removal will continue through the weekend in Troy. Residents were asked to clear sidewalks to neighboring properties by 10 a.m. today.
The Troy city council passed a measure asking residents to “adopt” a fire hydrant to keep them clear in case of emergency. Council President Carmella Mantello spoke Thursday night.
“Believe me, when I did put it on social media, when I did tweet it, a couple of people were like ‘Oh, you know what? I do the one at my house, but maybe I’ll done one a couple blocks over.’ So this is the legislative branch making a call to involve our citizenry and our businesses,” said Mantello.
Across the region, local governments are asking residents to check in with neighbors, friends, and family – especially the elderly or those with young children who may need assistance in the days after the storm.
Clifton Park highway superintendent Dahn Bull says the town has been in communication with the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office to determine where residents with special needs live to make sure roads are clear.
“I probably received two dozen calls yesterday from dispatch just giving us a heads up about people’s conditions and people we should be looking after. And we do the best we can to get trucks over there to plow them out and make sure their roads are passable in the event that there’s an emergency,” said Bull.
In Albany, where a 24-hour snow emergency began at 8 a.m., Mayor Kathy Sheehan says the city is getting assistance from the state to remove close to two feet of snow.
Sheehan says Albany, like many cities, is facing a shortage of CDL-licensed drivers to operate snow removal equipment around the clock – and the city is hiring. With so much snow falling in such a short period of time, Sheehan compared the storm to the higher frequency of downpours and other extreme weather the region has experienced in recent years.
“Longer term, we’re going to be looking at that and looking at what types of innovations we can come up with to deal with these situations because this was one for the record books. But when you look at other records, those storms took place over two, three, four days. This one took place over a couple of hours. So it’s a real challenge,” said Sheehan.
