Mayor looks back at snow emergency

Now that our snow is gone and we have had a few days to think about the recent weather event that parallels only two or three other events in my lifetime, here are my thoughts and perceptions.

 
The storms have been described by native residents as the worst storm we have had since 1950.  When inquiring about how this compares to other storms, we were surprised to find that the WSU extension does not keep snowfall records because snow accumulation is so rare.  This demonstrates just how hard it is to put this storm event in its proper category,

Skagit County has many “micro climates.” Temperature and snowfall amounts varied widely from community to community. Anacortes received about 18” of snow fall, Sedro Woolley got more than 21/2’, and Lake Cavanaugh, Concrete and Marblemount each received more than 4’ of snow.

It can be snowing in Anacortes and not in other areas of the valley, or it can be clear in Anacortes and snowing in Burlington and Sedro Woolley as it was last Friday, 1/2/09, when they received 5” of new snow.
Temperatures can vary widely; on 1/4/09 it was 32.5 degrees at 9:00 pm and snowing in Anacortes, while it was 36 degrees and raining in Burlington.

I am proud of our community and our employees and our collaboration through out the storm.  In the end our community was hit with an extraordinary amount of snowfall. I heard from a number of residents expressing concern regarding our streets and the difficultly they had in getting around.  In general, most of you did very well. The community did a good job of taking care of each other and for that I am grateful. We were fortunate, and we had no serious injuries during this event. Yes, we did bend a few fenders and we had some exciting moments.

Speaking from experience, this type of weather event is a fairly unusual one for our community, not unprecedented but somewhere in the top three of the last 50 years. Crews began sanding as soon as it began to snow, but the first snow that hit the ground was traveled on and frozen before it could thaw. Though we applied sand and for the first time ever mixed rock salt with sand in an effort to get the ice to thaw, the temperatures were cold enough that the salt did not have much of chance to have an impact.

With temperatures hovering below 20 degrees salt is not effective at thawing ice. Subsequent deep accumulations of snow and continued cold temperatures made removal difficult.  The City does have some snow removal equipment; however it is limited to one plow, one grader and one front end loader.  Our employees and equipment diligently worked 20 hours per day.

The City appreciates and wishes to thank the Anacortes School District and Superintendent Chris Borgen for allowing us the use of a snowplow. Three sanding units were busy throughout the event placing 869 tons of sand and salt on streets and intersections. In the end I want to thank our crews for their efforts during this event, 436 regular crew hours and 310 hours of overtime working from the 13th through the 30th , including 2 crews working on Christmas day. In total the City expended $31,450 dollars on labor and materials to battle this event.

I am proud of our community and the graciousness with which so many stepped forth to lend a hand to those in need.  These people realized it was more effective to step in and help than to find fault with the situation.  A special thank you to those who helped to make sure your neighbor’s needs were met. Thank you to those many citizens who phoned in and asked if they could help, by plowing out a parking lot or shoveling a sidewalk or checking in on a neighbor.

Thanks to the Kiwanians who helped community members get to and from town. 
Thank you to the several high school athletic groups that helped, for the Anacortes wrestlers who shoveled downtown sidewalks and at the senior center.
A thank you to SEBO’s who provided free rock salt for use on the sidewalks.

The City has an inclement weather policy.  I encourage people to view it on our website.  www.cityofanacortes.org This includes our sanding and plowing routes, the same maps that are on the dashboard of the trucks, so the citizens can see where we put our emphasis. As you might expect, our first areas of responsibility are to take care of our fire and police response, the hospital and our ambulance service. Primary transportation corridors, including the central business district, are the next priority.

For the future we are looking at purchasing an additional plow for the front of one of our trucks. However, plowing in urban settings is problematic; when you plow you will trap parked cars, isolate parking areas, driveways and side streets. It takes much more time to come back and clear these areas than the plowing. This could have its own impact on local residents.

We will continue to incorporated salt into our sanding operation when the situation calls for it. And we will be sticking first to sanding primary routes until they are passable. Additionally, we will be looking at possible on-call contracts for snow removal when we get inundated.

Again, I thank all Anacortes residents for their patience and hard work in helping all of us get through this unusual storm period. I am proud to know that our island residents still know how to deal with such a challenge.