City Begins Plowing ‘Round The Clock
SPOKANE — Spokane snow plows will be rumbling through the streets around the clock after the city declared a “Condition Red” snow emergency Wednesday which means that means the plows won’t stop running until all 967 miles of streets are clear.
It may take up to several days to clear all of those streets, and it could be days before they reach side streets which can be the toughest to navigate with many buried under several inches of snow.
The city says if we don’t get anymore snow, the earliest it will get to side streets is Friday but if the forecast holds don’t expect to see crews on your street until the weekend. In the meantime many residents are resorting to tire chains to get around town.
When Elmer Dunham clears snow his 60-year-old tractor normally does the trick.
“It works real good for an old thing,” Dunham said. “Works like a charm.”
However with several inches of snow Wednesday morning even Dunham had to chain up his tractor.
Drivers on Argonne Wednesday morning could have used his chains, where many motorists spun out while trying to make it up the hill and several big-rigs stopped to put extra traction on before even attempting it.
One person who doesn’t mind the extra snow is Ted Davis, a private plower. All those extra inches of snow means extra cash in his wallet.
“Yeah, we’re pretty buried,” he said. “We’ll be busy all day … try to keep them cleaned out.”
Eleven-year-old Anthony Fairfax was out shoveling the walks for free, though he wasn’t celebrating a snow day: He’s home-schooled, though his lesson Wednesday was a lesson in precipitation.
“It’s good for sledding but it’s not good snowball snow,” Anthony said.
Anthony got another lesson Wednesday; a lesson in irony.
Despite the snow emergency one plow truck was out of service during the morning for several hours when it was needed the most. Apparently, the slick conditions were just too much for one plow truck driver and his plow got stuck in the snow.
“Yeah, a snow plow stuck in the snow … doesn’t sound like it makes sense,” Anthony said.
The driver of the truck says the slick conditions were just too much to handle even with a plow in
Drivers on Strong Road were forced to wait while the truck responsible for clearing roads needed help getting out of the road.
Eventually traffic got moving again and so did the snow off the roads.
The driver of the snow plow truck was a little embarrassed, but once his truck was freed from the snow he got right back to plowing. From here on out there won’t be any breaks as road crews will be working around the clock to get all of the city streets cleared.
