BUFFALO, N.Y. — Here we snow...again!
Sunday night's snow storm continued well into Monday, with the greater Buffalo area seeing a hefty snowfall in a short period of time, making things pretty difficult for area plows to clear the way.
Yet again, AAA dispatch had a high volume of calls to juggle, with 60 percent or more of those coming from vehicles stuck in snow and in need of help.
Dan Fisher is the dispatch manager for Western and Central New York and says, "For the most part, it's people you know, they can't get through the plow mound at the end of the driveway, and their car just doesn't make it through gets hung up on that, on that icy snow. I think another thing too, is the type of snow, this is a very heavy snow, which makes it a lot more slippery."
Fisher tells 2 On Your Side, as of 1 p.m. on Monday, they already had over 135 calls to help free vehicles from snow - and counting.
By about 5 p.m., Fisher said there were still a good amount of calls waiting for assistance, "we've completed quite a few of those. But we still have about 100 still left in queue here that we're working through as we speak."
As for the city's Department of Public Works, Commissioner Mike Finn and his team have their work cut out for them with another significant snow fall in a short period of time - not to mention the frustrated city residents who are dealing with residential streets still in need of plowing.
"You know, our our message to everyone is, this is a marathon, not a sprint. So we're continuing to make progress and have been all night in Buffalo," Finn says. "The main and secondaries are starting to get in into good shape at this point, we transitioned started into the residential about mid afternoon. And we expect to be able to put more resources into our residential streets overnight."
As snow continued to fall into late Monday afternoon Finn says many roads had to be re-plowed which wasn't ideal, but it's what needed to be done.
Another topic of concern? Alternate residential parking - especially on narrow streets. Which the city says they will be lenient on at the moment given Mother Nature.
"When you see that that plow come by and open up the street, go ahead and move at that point. We've spoke with the parking enforcement, the parking, department, they'll be extending a courtesy to residents. And that's, you know, not putting tickets out tonight understanding that we're all in a tough spot right now. We want to work with with the residents," Finn expresses.
While some travel bans are being lifted others are still in effect in certain areas, which certainly helps plows do their jobs.
The city says it does have smaller trucks with more flexible equipment and lifts to tend to those smaller more narrow streets that are in need of snow removal.
If you are a city resident and need to report snow issues, call the 311 Call and Resolution Center. In the case of an emergency, you're asked to please call 911.