Erie streets crews continue cleanup from winter storm that buried region

Kevin Flowers, Erie Times-News
·4 min read

For city of Erie streets crews, digging out continues to be a 24-hour job in the wake of the region’s most significant winter storm to date, which dumped as much as 24 inches of snow on some parts of the region.

“Right now, we’re getting through everything, including the outlying areas, and we’re focusing today on the inner city and the side streets,” Steve Sornberger, the city’s streets bureau chief, said Tuesday morning.

Winter storm: Snow stacks up across Erie region

Vehicles throughout the city of Erie were buried in snow after the storm that hit Sunday and Monday, dumping nearly 2 feet of snow in some areas. This car was parked on Sassafras Street, near West Ninth Street, on Tuesday.
Vehicles throughout the city of Erie were buried in snow after the storm that hit Sunday and Monday, dumping nearly 2 feet of snow in some areas. This car was parked on Sassafras Street, near West Ninth Street, on Tuesday.

All of the city's available plow drivers continued to clear roadways Tuesday, even though the winter storm — which battered much of the eastern U.S. Sunday and Monday had tapered off.

The storm buried the Erie area on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, creating treacherous travel conditions and forcing the cancellation of several local events.

“What we had pretty much all over northwestern Pennsylvania was at least a foot of snow, with some areas over 20 inches,” said Raelene Campbell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Cleveland office. “The most we had was 24.7 inches in southeast Erie."

Monday's snowstorm: The latest from around Erie County

“The storm has gradually tapered off,” Campbell said. “We will get a brief warmup Wednesday, then it gets quite chilly again Thursday and into the weekend.”

Teams charged with removing snow from area roads continued to work overtime on Tuesday, and many speed restrictions put in place for some state-maintained roads on Monday were still in place on Tuesday, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

'Plowed in'

In Erie, Sornberger said that 23 city plows and three high-lifts were working to clear snow from streets, cul-de-sacs, alleys and other rights-of-way on Tuesday, with employees working two 12-hour shifts.

“Unfortunately we’re still dealing with a lot of cars parked in the wrong places,” Sornberger said. “Our biggest obstacle right now in getting some of the inner-city streets cleared is people not moving their vehicles.

“It’s most of the inner city. The lower east side, lower west side, middle east side, middle west side,” Sornberger said. “We had 22 streets we couldn’t get through with trucks (Monday) because of either vehicles parked on both sides of the street, or vehicles that were stuck in the middle of the street and just left there.”

Sornberger and other city officials on Tuesday once again reminded residents to adhere to the city’s odd-even winter parking rules to make it easier for plow drivers to clear streets.

Those rules regulate parking on weekdays during the winter, between Nov. 1 and March 31, on designated sides of the street in many areas of the city make it easier for streets crews to plow snow.

“We understand some people don’t have off-street parking in the city. But we have a lot of cars parked on the wrong sides of the street right now that are totally plowed in,” Erie Mayor Joe Schember said.

“If people do what they can to be aware of the rules in the winter and move their cars, it’s a huge help to us,” Schember said.

Storm totals

The National Weather Service reported a wide range of snowfall totals throughout Erie and Crawford counties as of Monday night/early Tuesday:

  • Harborcreek: 22 inches

  • Girard: 17.5 inches

  • Meadville: 17.5 inches

  • Northwest Edinboro: 17 inches

  • North East: 16.1 inches

  • Cochranton: 15.2 inches

  • Corry: 9 inches

  • Spartansburg: 7 inches

Light snow — up to an inch — was in the Erie region's Tuesday forecast. A rain/snow mix is in the forecast Wednesday, with a high near 37 degrees and a low around 15 degrees at night.

Temperatures are expected to drop to near 20 degrees on Thursday, with a chance of snow showers in the afternoon. Thursday night’s low temperature could dip into single digits, according to the Weather Service.

Partly sunny skies and highs in the 20s are expected both Friday and Saturday, with lows Friday night around 7 degrees and temperatures dropping to around 18 degrees on Saturday night.

Snow showers could return on Sunday, with a high near 27 degrees and a low near 16 degrees.

Contact Kevin Flowers at kflowers@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ETNflowers.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie winter weather: Road crews wrestle with 'buried' cars in aftermath of storm