“Lucky” City Digs Out

One overnight car accident. One fallen tree. No lost power.

Those were the tallies mid-day Thursday as the season’s first snowstorm was heading out of town and New Haven proceeded digging out of eight to ten inches of mounds of white.

It could have been worse.

And through Thursday, as the storm was in its last hour before moving north and east, we still have work to do. It will help if people can stay home and avoid driving.

City officials delivered that message during an 11 a.m. update held outside the 200 Orange St. municipal office building.

City emergency operations chief Rick Fontana thanked New Haveners for largely following the mayor’s emergency street parking ban, which remains in effect. (Read details here.) That helped crews clear streets more easily. Overnight the city towed a total of 80 illegally parked vehicles (69 ticketed by the traffic and parking crew, 11 by police officers), a drop from numbers in previous years, according to transit chief Doug Hausladen. The ticketing and towing crew resumed work Thursday morning.

If your car gets towed, go to this link to find out where it is and how to retrieve it. You can also call (203) 946‑6316.

Twenty people were stuck in cars on the road overnight and called for city help.

Storms often topple trees and utility wires through the city, knocking power out for homes. That didn’t happen this time, despite 30 to 40-mile-per-hour winds. The only known tree fall was on Farnam Drive in East Rock, according to parks chief Bill Carone. No power outages were reported in the city.

Fire crews are out clearing hydrants. Fontana asked anyone who sees a buried hydrant in their neighborhood to lend a hand if possible. ​“We can’t get to all of them at once,” he said.

Meanwhile, seniors who need someone to shovel their walk or driveway can call Interfaith Caregivers at (203) 230‑8994.

The city opened up the Hall of Records for 17 homeless people to sleep in overnight.

CT Transit buses were expected to resume operating at noon.

Mayor Justin Elicker noted that the first shift of public works plow drivers started at 9 p.m. Wednesday and are continuing through 1 p.m. Thursday.

There’s still a lot of work to do clearing the roads. Fontana asked folks to stay home ​“and have an extra cup of coffee” if possible; and otherwise to keep extra distance between your vehicle and other vehicles if you need to drive.

Long Night Early Morning

City plow truck driver Julio Perez (pictured) drove down Orange Street just before noon Wednesday —nearly 15 hours into his 16-hour overnight shift.

“It went great,” he said about his late night and early morning of clearing downtown streets of snow. ​“It went good because most of the residents stayed off the streets. It was kind of quiet, not too much traffic, which made it easier for us to plow.”

That lack of traffic was particularly helpful given how heavily the snow was falling, he said. He said he occasionally had to pause driving his downtown route until the downfall eased up.

“You can’t beat the storm, but the storm can beat you,” he said.

How did this storm compare to other whiteouts he’s worked on during his nine years with the city? ​“There was better communication on this storm,” Perez said. ​“There were a lot of people involved. And better communication.”

City parks department foreman John Sehl (pictured) also worked an overnight shift downtown Wednesday night into Thursday morning.

Standing on the Green by Elm Street and Temple Street, he said he started work at around 9 p.m. last night and will be on the clock until 4 p.m. today.

Sehl, a 35-year city veteran, said he spent most of the night clearing bus stops, corners, and streets adjacent to the Green — sometimes by hand, sometimes with his truck.

“Nothing out of the ordinary,” he said about his work during the storm. He did, however, see more cars out and about than Perez. ​“They were still driving around like it was a regular day,” he said. ​“I just can’t understand that.”

A half block away, three Town Green Special Services District ambassadors — Jeff Lee, Devante Williams, and Reynaldo Ortiz — shoveled the sidewalk at the corner of Elm and Church.

Lee (pictured), a 10-year veteran of Town Green, said that the crew had started work at around 6:30 a.m. and would be out until the early afternoon, focusing their work on clearing wheelchair ramps.

He said the storm rated a 7 out of 10 in comparison to other storms he’s worked during. ​“This is manageable,” he said.

And back at 200 Orange St., firefighters Ryan Sargent and Kevin Kelly hopped out of a fire engine, shovels in hand, and quickly moved a food of snow that had been pushed up against a yellow fire hydrant.

“When we get a fire, the last thing we want to do is delay ourselves getting water at the hydrant source,” Capt. Michael Farrell said about why his team was prioritizing digging out upwards of 50 fire hydrants across the city Thursday.

“We’ve still got a long way to go,” Kelly said during a brief pause to catch his breath. ​“It’s the job.”

When asked how he likes the work of digging out hydrants on such a snowy day, Sargent said, ​“It keeps us busy,” and keeps the hydrants clear in case of a fire.

Which part of his body hurts the most after a day’s worth of digging hydrants out from the snow?

“The back, by the end of the day,” he said. ​“That’s absolutely it.”