Area snow crews yearn for help from the sun

Snowplows have swept across 99 percent of the city's 2,575 miles of roadway.

Crews have sprinkled 8,500 tons of salt - twice the normal amount for foot-deep snow.

Streets workers and contractors will work through the weekend.

And yet, for all the time and money spent on clearing Wednesday's snowstorm, this one is going to be harder than most to push aside and forget.

Blame the weather - again.

Managing Director Richard Negrin told reporters Friday that a little sunshine would go a long way toward melting the thick layer of snow and ice that seems to be glued to blacktop across the city.

"Folks need to be patient," Negrin said. "The one that is not cooperating is the weather, with the lack of sunlight."

It could be days before Philadelphia's streets are passable, and no one feels that pressure more than Streets Commissioner Clarena I.W. Tolson.

At midday Friday, she was overseeing snow removal in a tight Center City alley off Sansom Street. A small front-end loader scooped up 500 pounds of wet snow at a time as a truck followed close behind, sprinkling crystals of salt on about two inches of packed ice.

"If we just plow, that ice pack won't go away," she said. "If we caught a break with some sun - sun, and traffic to grind the salt in - that would change this all around."

Tolson said the storm amounted to an unprecedented "snow sandwich" dumped on the city.

"We had two inches of snow topped with freezing rain and sleet and 12 more inches of snow," she said.

Snow fell at a rate of three inches an hour, about triple the intensity of a typical storm. Tolson said her plow crews could not keep up.

Even as the city and suburbs struggle to dig out from this one, more bad news is on the way.

AccuWeather Inc. is predicting another storm, coming up from the South, that could bring snow, sleet, or rain Wednesday. "Any one of those is fair game," said Thomas Kines, a senior meteorologist.

He said it would be a major storm affecting a broad swath, from as far west as the Ohio Valley through the Mid-Atlantic and into New England. Kines said that if the temperature stayed below freezing, the storm could dump more than a foot of snow, but whether in Philadelphia or Indianapolis, it's "way too early to tell."

The latest storm's aftermath is frustrating residents across the region.

Philadelphia's 311 emergency hotline has received four times the usual volume of calls.

Tolson said the city spent $18 million last year on snow removal and had spent $6 million this year up to the point of this week's storm. Asked if the price tag for this job would be another couple of million, Tolson replied: "Another couple? That's so funny."

She added, "I have not done the calculation yet."

In New Jersey, cleanup on major state roadways fared well, while officials were still working on some county and local roadways.

"Everything seems to be fine on the state highways," said New Jersey State Police Acting Maj. Gerald Lewis. "Most of the major roadways are in great condition right now."

In Burlington County, the cleanup continued, according to Kevin Tuno, coordinator of the Office of Emergency Management.

"This was a particularly heavy snowfall, so it's taking a little longer to clean off the roadways," Tuno said. "Right now, the state and county are hitting hot spots, pushing snow further out to the shoulder."

He said county emergency officials reached out to the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management for help to clear Route 130.

One hot spot was in Burlington City, he said, where snow has to be cleared from the shoulder of Route 130 to allow Burlington City High School students to walk to school.

Tuno said snow still has to be moved from smaller streets in smaller municipalities.

In Norristown, Montgomery County, homeowners groused that many streets around businesses and government buildings were cleared, while most side streets were still buried by snow and ice. Parking spaces were hard to find.

"It usually takes them a couple of days to get to all of the side streets," Troy Gaines said as he shoveled outside a friend's house on DeKalb Street.

In Philadelphia's Grays Ferry section, Anita Boyd waited for the Route 29 bus at 27th and Morris Streets. Boyd, who relies on public transportation, has been unable since Tuesday to get to her job at a South Philadelphia day-care center.

"It looks like it's going to be today, too, if this bus doesn't come," said Boyd, 43, her lips pursed in disgust.

SEPTA had trouble Friday with a third of its bus routes. Twenty-five routes were not operating and 17 had only limited service, said Heather Redfern, a spokeswoman. Paratransit service was limited to only dialysis patients and people with medical appointments.

While the city struggled with clearing streets, some services returned to normal. "Everything is great here," said Victoria Lupica, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia International Airport, which had 1,500 travelers stranded by the storm.

Crews worked two days to clear all runways, then used seven giant ice-melting machines to send former mountains of snow down the drain.