A Tuesday morning email exchange between this reporter and Mayor Butch Berry regarding storm preparedness answers some questions:
ESI: How did the city handle the winter storms of the last two weeks?
BB: Some have questioned whether there is a winter weather plan. Yes. But this was not the winter weather we typically experience. We had to deal with several periods of ice, snow, ice, snow, then power outages, frozen and broken pipes, sewers, floods and sustained sub-freezing temperatures, just for starters.
Priority is given to clearing primary routes in town and to addressing emergencies – both life threatening and infrastructure – like frozen pipes, water mains, pulling people out of ditches and getting them to safety.
Another priority was organizing shelters for citizens losing power and water, and housing homeless persons. It’s almost impossible to clear ice from the streets when the temperature is -15 degrees. Beet juice and salt do not work properly when the temperature goes below 10 degrees. We can scrape the snow, but then you have ice. We do not use steel blades to remove ice because of the damage that they do to the streets and manholes.
ESI: Did people use storm shelters?
MB: We thank New Day Fellowship, the Methodist Church, and the Community Center for opening their facilities as emergency shelters during the storm, which were put to use during the 5-day storms.
ESI: Did people complain about their roads not being treated or plowed?
MB: Some. There are 155 winding and hilly streets in Eureka – many are very steep. Even though Public Works attempted to clear some, they were unable to make it to many streets due to the ice coating. Some were impassable with cars parked along the street. Many of those streets are dead ends with no turn around for the trucks. The expectation to have every street in town cleared, especially the steep ones, is simply not very realistic. And no one should demand their street takes priority over another. Everyone was impacted by this storm.
Our Public Works department has 7 crew members. They pre-treated the streets with beet juice prior to the storms, then put down a salt/chat mix on the snow, and then used the box plow attached to the front of city trucks. Beet juice does not do well when the temperature goes into minus temperatures. Some employees worked 20 hours straight in below freezing, life threatening conditions.
In addition, they assisted with 2 jack-knifed delivery trucks on the upper loop on Wednesday, pulled out countless other vehicles that slid off our streets, and dealt with 40 water shutoffs at homes and businesses due to burst pipes last Friday alone.
ESI: Did the second truck used to treat roads get put back in service?
MB: We were concerned about equipment because one of our two box plows was in the shop for repair prior to the storm arrival. We were able to put the second box plow back in service on Wednesday morning after the part arrived to fix it and we could get it back here safely. The backhoe, used for loading chat/salt mix as well as digging to ruptured water/sewer mains, was plugged in to prevent the diesel from gelling. However. with temperatures at 19 below zero, the diesel did gel. When I came into city hall on Wednesday, there was a city truck with the door open. I ask what happen and he said he was trying to fix the door latch, which had just fell off. This was the 1980 truck, the other truck is a 2004.
ESI: Facebook comments included people complaining about steep streets, like Pine, not being plowed. Is there a limit to what a snowplow can do without creating safety problems for the operator and anything in the way, i.e. people, cars and buildings?
MB: Our box blades are actually rubber rather than metal. Rubber blades float over things like sewer manholes, which are located in the center of most of our streets. Rubber is protective of our road surfaces, and prevent as much pot holing after massive storms like this one. Unfortunately, rubber blades can’t chip ice, so vertical streets like Pine still have an ice cap at the top that we can’t bust up. Public Works managed to plow about halfway up Pine, as an example, but cannot address the upper part of Pine and other vertical streets that have ice caps at the top. And like many streets, there were cars parked so we could not go up and clear the street.
ESI: Did public service workers go above and beyond duty to help a return to normal?
MB: One citizen has called for me to apologize for the city and Public Works “not doing their job.” Well, I will not apologize for all the employees that put their lives at risk in sub-freezing temps and dangerous conditions –we and the entire city, in my humble opinion, need to thank our Public Works Dept. and city employees for going the extra mile in extreme winter conditions! They put their personal safety and health at risk and dealt with the needs of 2,000 people who live in this community. I was very concerned about their welfare and I am very proud of them. Do I wish we had several shiny new snowplows and dozens more Public Works and city employees? Sure – but that’s not realistic with our budget constraints. I have invited the current city council to meet me at the Public Works barn on Wednesday afternoon to review the conditions they have been and are working in, as well as get a visual of our current equipment.