SNOW STOPPER
Here we go again: 3 towns declare storm emergencies
NORTH WALES >> Local officials wasted no time getting ready for this latest round of snow, declaring snow emergencies and issuing warnings and safety tips ahead of today’s storm.
“We’ve had a few weeks of snow, and it really looks like there’s a few weeks more to come. That stupid groundhog really did us in,” said Bill Kaelin, North Wales Borough’s emergency management coordinator.
As of Wednesday afternoon, forecasts called for three to six inches of snow to fall Wednesday night into Thursday morning, with the heaviest snowfall expected between 8 a.m. and noon today, according to Accuweather.com. The National Weather Service’ Mount Holly office projected snowfall of up to an inch per hour, with icing overnight and some light precipitation likely to continue into Friday.
Montgomery County has declared a Code Blue cold weather emergency through 8 p.m. tonight, with weather or wind chills expected below 20 degrees. The Code Blue shelter in Lansdale put out a call Wednesday afternoon for volunteers to work overnight shifts through the weekend at their shelter, located at Immanuel Church, 1260 Welsh Road, and those interested can sign up
via https://tinyurl.com/CodeBlueLansdale or emailing codeblue@trinitylansdale.com.
County officials advised drivers to make sure their cars had full gas tanks and inflated tires and are stocked with emergency kits, and that residents check their smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, avoid long exposure to winter weather, and limit pets’ time outdoors.
North Wales Borough was the first in the North Penn area to declare an updated snow emergency, effective from 6 a.m. today through noon Friday, and Towamencin and Upper Gwynedd townships and Lansdale Borough followed with similar declarations for this morning through Friday afternoon. Parking restrictions in North Wales will be enforced on Main and Walnut Streets in the borough,
cars will be towed, and riding bicycles is prohibited in town to protect the safety of bicyclists and drivers.
Kaelin gave council an update last week on the borough’s snow plowing tactics, with tips for residents on how to keep their streets safe and help them get cleared more quickly.
“We feel your frustration out there. We try our best to clear the snow, and the main purpose of clearing snow is to ensure emergency services: police, fire, and EMT vehicles, can navigate through the borough,” he said.
Residents are asked to remove their cars from snow emergency routes as soon as a declaration is made, so plow trucks can come through. In areas where residents do not have driveways, some have parked cars partially on the sidewalk, which can help provide space for plows to come through.
“The key is to get cars off the street as much as possible. I know that’s not possible everywhere in the borough, that don’t have off-street parking, but whatever you can do to help facilitate, to get as many cars off the street as possible in the snowstorm, the better off we are in the long run,” Kaelin said.
Once snow plow trucks have made a first pass, don’t move your car right away, because they’ll likely come back.
“They’re going to go back through there three or four times, to push the snow back a little at a time, toward the curb. Depending on how much snow falls, they may not get it on one pass,” he said.
Some streets coordinate which side they’ll use for parking in snow emergencies, Kaelin added: Smith Street, between Summit and Oak Streets, normally allows parking on both sides, and in snow emergencies all park on only one side.
“During a snowstorm, they manage to get every vehicle off of that street, so we can plow curb to curb, and when we’re done, now they have places to park,” he said.
Once plows are through, residents are asked to clear and salt their sidewalks as soon as possible, and try to shovel onto the yard
“The past couple of storms, Public Works guys have gone out and spent a lot of time clearing snow out, and four or five hours you come by and it looks like it hasn’t been done at all,” he said.
“What happens is, the residents take their snow blowers out, or shovel out their cars, and where do they put all the snow? Back into the road again. Please, put all that snow in your front yard, or somewhere else but the street again, because it just does no good.”