WATERBURY – A natural gas leak kept a small portion of East Main Street closed overnight, but otherwise, city officials report few problems as a growing storm took hold of the city Thursday morning.
The city has a parking ban in effect for snow removal today. Any cars parked on the odd numbered sides of streets risk getting towed at owners expense. Traffic is still moving, with some difficulty, on downtown streets, although city officials would prefer most people stay home.
“I’m really asking people to stay off the roads so public works staff can do their job,” Mayor Neil O’Leary said.
O’Leary said the city is offering free city rides to work for critical medical staff working at hospitals and emergency clinics around the city. Staff needing a ride could call his office at 203 574 6712.
The city fielded about 40 city plows as of 8 a.m., a number expected to increase to about 100, with private contractors, as the day progressed.
O’Leary said he watched through the morning as snow predictions climbed ever higher.
Meteorologist John Bagioni, of Fax-Alert Weather Service, predicts 6-10 inches of snow across central Connecticut. Most of the heavy snow will fall by 3 p.m., with light snow continuing into the evening.
The Department of Public Works continued to pick up curbside trash Thursday. City Director of Operations Joseph Geary said trash collectors were brought in at 3 a.m., about an hour early.
The city expects to collect most routes today before garbage trucks are diverted to plowing roads. Any trash on the Thursday routes not collected today will be folded into Friday’s collection. Some households may be pushed into Saturday.
Geary said he’s heard no accident reports as of 8 a.m. Even so, travel on roadways was slippery and slow-going.
A natural gas leak caused the city to shut down a small section of East Main Street, between Southmayd Road and Beecher Avenue Wednesday evening around 10 p.m. Traffic continued to be detoured around the area Thursday morning.
Eversource spokesman Mitch Gross said utility crews arrived at the leak around midnight and have been working through the evening to close it off.
“There are no safety issues, although customers may smell that familiar odor of natural gas from time to time as the work is completed,” Gross said.
NAUGATUCK
Seventeen municipal trucks and seven contractors are plowing the borough’s roads Thursday.
“We haven’t had any significant break-downs, so we’re in good shape at this point,”Public Works Director Jim Stewart said around noon. “We have plenty of sand and salt. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll be all cleaned up and ready for people to go to work,” he said.
U.S. Postal Service driver Sandy Kurtz got hung up on a hill on Morning Dove Road just before noon, even with chains on her tires.
Kurtz, a 30-year mail veteran, said people should stay off the roads. Even the main thoroughfare of New Haven Road was in poor condition, she said.
“There’s been worse, but this is a good one,” Kurtz said.
Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess said he has a crew ready to open the town’s ice skating rink Friday morning so people can “return to the pleasures of winter.”
Sign into rep-am.com and the E-Edition with one click access“We’re keeping ahead of the storm and things are under control right now and we’re anticipating we’ll be in good shape not too long after the snow ends,” Hess said.
As of noon, Hess said there was no emergency. However, if severe winds knock out power, the borough is prepared to open a shelter at either the senior center or event center, depending on the availability of electricity.
BEACON FALLS
Beacon Falls First Selectman Christopher Bielik said everything was going reasonably well as of noon, with no reported power outages. The town’s public works crews had been out on the roads since 3 a.m.. Town Hall offices are closed. Bielik encouraged residents to stay home if possible. As of noon, Bielik estimated at least six inches of snow had fallen on the town, with more to come.
“I couldn’t see the Mobil station across from Town Hall,” he said.
Town crews started laying sand and salt down around 3:30 a.m. and 14 trucks were out plowing the roads all morning.
“We’re holding our own,” Chatfield said.
He expected the worst of the storm to be over by 4 p.m. and said it would take another five hours after that to completely clear the roads, perhaps more if the wind blows the snow back into the streets. Light traffic was helping snow plows move quickly, Chatfield said.
Emergency services had only received one call as of 12:30 p.m. – for a radiator that froze and blew off the wall on Holley Lane. Plumbers were taking care of the problem, Chatfield said.
Although it was hard to tell due to snow drifts, Chatfield estimated the town saw at least eight inches of snow by 12:30 p.m.
“I can’t wait until tonight when it stops,” Chatfield said.
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this is not the 1st snow storm the state has ever had.. This is a fluff story, not news
Snow storms are cheap news and easy to cover for local media, especially television stations. It’s the same thing every year, every storm.