City Paralyzed by Snow Storm

Dig out goes into high gear

Chelsea was turned into a winter wonderland by the heavy snow that virtually closed down the city Wednesday.

Schools were closed. Many businesses did not open and government offices were closed, including Chelsea City Hall (except for emergency personnel).

A tremendous effort was made to keep main arteries open during the height of the storm as shown in this photograph taken about 11:30 a.m. showing a caravan of plows making their way up Broadway in the heavy snow.

The Northeast storm dumped about 18” of snow on the city and throughout the region.

Here, the heavy snow, which was followed by a sharp drop in the temperature and higher winds, caused a number of cable and electric power lines to come down, chief among them, a power line stretching in front of the Central Fire Station.

The Chelsea Fire Department answered more than 20 calls during the storm. All the apparatus wore chains on their rear tires to provide for better traction in the deep snow.

Chelsea was covered with a heavy veneer of brilliant white snow.

Although plowing was ongoing throughout the storm, as conditions worsened during the day, so too did the passability of many of the city’s side streets and its many hilly streets.

A drive around the city near to noontime revealed mostly deserted streets throughout the city.

Large numbers of plows in caravans kept the main arteries clean and open. Broadway in the downtown and Bellingham Square were covered with snow but were drivable. The Marketbasket was not open for a regular days business, giving rise to the belief that this was indeed a powerful storm.

The city towed about 50 cars due to the snow emergency.

Once again, the city announced the parking emergency/snow emergency with a web posting, cable tv posting and main media notification 12 hours before the storm hit.

In addition, the city ordered Verizon to do the nominal reverse 911 notification which reached thousands instantly.

Many parked cars on the city’s narrow streets were packed in to their spaces by the snow.

Then the temperature dropped, turning the fluffy snow into frozen bricks of ice.

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