The snow has finally stopped. Now the recovery phase begins. Our citizens did a remarkable job in the preparation phase. They got their cars off of the snow emergency routes.They prepared themselves to be inconvenienced for three days. They checked on their vulnerable neighbors. As the snow began to fall onon Friday afternoon, we entered the emergent phase. Once again our citizens did well by staying informed and staying home. This allowed our Public Works crews to keep the snow emergency routes passable. Because of the historic amounts of snowfall, Public Works had the additional challenge of hauling the snow out of the area. Through it all, Police, Fire and EMS calls were always answered. All City Departments did their part. There is still an enormous amount of work to accomplish.
The City of Annapolis is currently at level 3 with our snow emergency plan. While at this level, residents should refrain from driving around Annapolis. No matter how skillful a driver you are with your 4x4, vehicle you will get stuck which interferes with all of the good progress that Public Works is making. We will need to manage the citizens expectations. They should concentrate their efforts on digging out their properties while staying off of the roads as much as they can. Keep in mind this is "heart attack snow." Residents will need to shovel snow smartly to not have an medical emergency.
Public Works made significant progress last night. Crews were able to make all snow emergency routes passable. After midnight, Public Works started clearing the snow connector routes downtown. Today, Public Works will start the salting process at sunrise. Hand crews will begin clearing sidewalks at City Hall, Market House, MIT, 145 Gorman St and the Market House. This will be an all day operation. There is a real chance that Public Works may not get to some side streets until Tuesday or Wednesday.
Getting stuck in the snow is not exclusive to passenger vehicles. Public Works vehicles got stuck in the snow 10-12 times during this event. A fire department ambulance responding to the Stanton Center got stuck in the snow. It took Fire, Public Works and National Guard personnel a few hours to free the ambo. As far as I know, there have been no injuries to any employee as a result of this snowstorm event.
The Emergency Operations Center continues to be operational on a 24 hour basis since Friday. The Annapolis Call Center has been functional since Friday as well. There were 28 calls from citizens yesterday. Most of the questions center around snow removal, parking and snow emergency levels.
The National Guard Unit assigned to Annapolis and their Humvees have proven to be a valuable asset. They have aided in freeing public works and fire vehicles, getting fire and police personnel to their assigned post and escorting city officials to survey the impact of the storm.
The use of local hotels for some employees has been instrumental in keeping police, fire, dispatchers, public works and OEM personnel available to respond to work.
