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.
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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.