Winter Shows

Who’s Boss

By Steve Bigham

It’s not every day that Newtown gets 18 inches of snow, but the story behind this week’s snowstorm wasn’t so much the amount of snow. More than anything, it will be the timing of Monday’s storm that will be remembered most.

For some people, the timing could not have been any worse. According to one report, there were 10,000 cars stuck in traffic on I-84 between Hartford and Waterbury Monday afternoon and night. The snow was responsible for jackknifed trucks that halted traffic for nearly 10 hours. One Newtown resident left West Hartford at 2:30 pm Monday and after sitting in traffic for nearly 10 hours, finally arrived home at 3 o’clock Tuesday morning.

Route 25 in Newtown turned into a veritable wasteland of marooned cars Monday, especially between the flagpole and Sand Hill Plaza, where southbound traffic sat motionless. Once again, the culprits were broken down trucks on a hill. So why hadn’t the state DOT trucks plowed Route 25? They were apparently stuck in traffic on 84.

“One of the things that made it difficult was that the state got absolutely overwhelmed with accidents on 84. They got way backed up, so they requested that the town plows help out,” explained Public Works Director Fred Hurley.

When they could, the 25 or so Newtown plow drivers cleared a lane on state routes 25, 34, and 302, or chipped in with a little sand and salt.

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal said the state should probably be sent a bill, but recalled one other time the town sent it a bill for cleanup help. It laughed in our face, he said.

The flakes started falling in Newtown at around 8:30 Monday morning and didn’t stop for 14 hours. At times, the snow accumulation was at least three inches an hour, prompting people to leave work early. That meant the traffic at midday was even higher than usual, creating havoc for the plows. Fortunately, schools were closed for the day. They were also closed on Tuesday and town employees did not report to their offices until 11 am.

This week’s storm ranks as the third worst in recent memory, trailing only a major snowstorm in 1996 and the “Ella Grasso” storm of 1978, which took place 23 years ago Tuesday. That storm was much worse, according to Mr Hurley, because of the high winds and cold weather that accompanied it. For the most part, there was not much wind this week, which cut down on the number of snowdrifts.

“In 78, you had bitter cold temperatures for several days. It was blizzard conditions. You had howling winds. This week, the snow fell, you plowed it off the roads and went home. In 78, it would drift back on to the road,” Mr Hurley explained.

Still, the sheer volume of snow made for a long day for those who report for work when the white stuff starts falling.

“This certainly wasn’t a nightmare of a storm, but this was a case when [the crew] never got any down time. We had guys who came in at 3 or 4 in the morning for the storm Monday,” Mr Hurley said. “They went straight through the day and the last guys didn’t leave until early Tuesday morning. We had a number of guys who went over 30 hours with no sleep.”

And they were back out on the roads early Wednesday morning to enable the school buses to make their routes. Tuesday saw a tremendous melting of the snow and cool temperatures at night turned it all to ice by nightfall.

According to Jim Connolly at the Western Connecticut State University weather center, the hour between 7 and 8 pm Monday saw 4.5  inches of snow fall.

“It was your typical ‘coastal low’ developing off the coast,” he explained this week. “It really started to explode as it got south of us. It was in a perfect position to give us an all-snow tract. A lot of times you get snow accompanied by freezing rain. This was all snow.”

And plenty of it, too.

Just ask the Newtown highway department, where some workers spent 30-straight hours clearing the roads. A Bee reporter rode alongside John Mead Monday night as he barreled his way along town roads in the Botsford section of town. Mr Mead has been plowing those roads for 15 years now and has seen his share of snow.

“This is one of the big ones,” he said.

To date, the town has spent $301,000 on snow removal this winter. That includes costs for overtime, sand, and salt (see related story).