After melting snow poured into a major downtown street, it took a backhoe, a shovel, and swift coordination to clear away the gushing water. It was the first of what could be many operations to come, as New Haven’s snow emergency turns into an ice and flooding emergency.
Melting snowbanks from recent storms filled North Frontage Road just above York Street with a large pool of water midday Wednesday.
Ambulances, taxis and trucks leaving the highways sent water spraying up into the air. Meanwhile, a steady flow of pedestrians headed to and from Yale’s medical campus, stepping carefully to keep their feet dry.
Melissa Bailey Photo
At 1 p.m., a city worker who gave his name only as Ron, blocked the danger zone with his city-issued car, license plate 448-NH. Hazards warned drivers of the upcoming dive they were going to take into the pool. Some took warning and slowed down; others slammed into the water, sending waves lapping in their wake.
The city targeted the area as it shifted attention midday from plowing streets to clearing catch basins and removing floods, said Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts. The fire department served as the city’s eyes, scanning the streets for floods. If they could handle it, firefighters would jump out with shovels to clear out the storm drains. To tackle this difficult spot, the city called in an outside contractor, Laydon Industries.
North Frontage was one of two areas of the worst flooding around midday, along with Valley Street, Smuts said.
Two vehicles from Laydon, a large red truck and a yellow backhoe, rolled into the scene at 1:15 p.m.
Dennis McKeon (pictured) got right to work on the backhoe, pushing away snow that was piled on the side of the road outside Walgreens. He scraped off the snowbank from the side, then cut out a chunk with his front scoop. As police Officer Luis Rivera directed traffic, McKeon darted across the street, dumping the snow onto an already impassable sidewalk outside the parking garage.
Cars splashed by him between snow-dumping trips.
By 1:45 p.m., the crew had cleared one drain. They moved onto the second one. There, Laydon worker Jose Balseiro used a shovel and a steel pole to poke around for the drain.
Click on the play arrow at the top of this story to watch their work.
By 1:55 p.m., they had cleared away the flood. Asked a question from the side of the road, Balseiro walked quickly away.
“We gotta go,” said Balseiro as he hopped into his truck.
Moments later, around 2 p.m., the crew was pushing snow at York and Elm, where clogged drains created huge puddles. The corner is a busy pedestrian spot, especially for Yale undergraduate students scurrying to class.
Students gingerly stepped into the pools or trudged through the nearby snowbank for safety.
Within half an hour, the crew had cleared one drain by the Gant clothing store, clearing that flood. The road crew regrouped for a one-minute scrum. Then McKeon hopped back into his backhoe, ready to roll onto the next job.
Parking Ban Off
Meanwhile, CAO Smuts offered an update on the city’s shift in strategy after emerging from an emergency strategy session around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.
You can park on the odd side of the street again, as city crews are shifting from routine plowing to shoveling out catch basins and clearing roadways that emergency vehicles can’t get through.
As the seemingly non-ending series of storms shifted from snow to ice and rain, the city is now most concerned about flooding and collapsing commercial roofs.
Here’s the plan, according to Smuts (pictured):
The fire department Wednesday afternoon will fan out to try to shovel out catch basins. In cases where shovels can’t do the job, the city will call in crews with Bobcats, payloaders, or a backhoe.
Meanwhile, the city has stopped enforcing the ban on parking on the even-numbered side of residential streets. However the city is still planning to do aggressive towing — on streets where parked cars are blocking traffic. The focus will be on roads where fire or garbage trucks won’t be able to pass through.
Meanwhile, calls have been pouring in to the city from people scared about their roofs collapsing, especially since an office building’s roof collapsed Wednesday morning on Middletown’s Main Street. Smuts said the big concern is for flat commercial roofs. “If you have a pitched roof,” he said, “it should clear itself.”
The city’s Emergency Operations Center, which has been open 24/7 since Friday, will stop taking civilian calls at 203 – 946-8221 as of 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, Smuts said. Anyone with questions or concerns can call the police front desk at 203 – 946-6316.
Crews planned to clear out catch basins until 8 p.m., Smuts said. At that point, workers plan to shift to putting material down on the roads, because it will be too cold to work on the catch basins. Temperatures Thursday are expected to remain below freezing, he said; crews should return Thursday to the backhoes to clear out drains to prevent future floods.
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Politics 101
Class 1. Find a fall guy and pass the buck
It's easy to tell the city can no longer clean up snow. Last week Johnny Boy was in charge as the omnipresent leader who would save us all. After his abysmal efforts and all the criticism he's now left Smuts in charge so he can distance himself from this debacle
Class 2. People forget quickly
What luck. November's a long way off