BUFFALO, N.Y. — One of the things that may hamper the ability of Western New York municipalities in their effort to plow snow from a Veterans Day storm is the lack of available plows.
As the trucks used to plow roads during the winter are used for other purposes during other seasons, many were still more equipped to pick up leaves than to plow snow when the storm hit on Monday.
In Cheektowaga, Highway Superintendent Mark Wegner told WGRZ-TV the town had 10 plows, and two high lifts available. However, that is less than half of the full complement of snow removal vehicles they might have in December.
Still, he didn't seem worried about the town's ability to clear roads as the storm began to set in.
"We have 25 plow routes, and a normal plow route takes four hours to complete one time around," Wegner said. "So now I have half of that so it's going to take 8 to 10 hours to do what usually takes four... but we'll be ready. It will just take a little longer and we just ask the people tonight to stay off the roads and if possible to to avoid parking on them overnight."
Wegner called in mechanics to outfit some plows on Sunday, but avoided doing so on Monday. This decision was made due to the overtime costs associated with working on a holiday, and also due to a lack of available mechanics, many of whom — according to Wegner — were deer hunting on Monday.
Erie County Public Works Commissioner William Geary reported on Sunday that the county only had 75 percent of its plows ready to go, but that an effort would be made to have 90 percent of them geared up by Monday evening when the storm was expected to pick up.
Late Monday afternoon Geary said the county was close to meeting that goal with 35 of its 40 plows at the ready.
In the City of Buffalo, Mayor Byron Brown said that although the entire fleet was not set up to plow on Monday he was confident the number of vehicles, which were ready to go would be sufficient to handle the amount of snowfall expected.
The Department of Public Works in Niagara Falls had five plow trucks on the roads Monday afternoon. They had a total of six trucks ready to go for a few weeks, but that's only about 25 percent of their total fleet.
The Niagara Falls DPW has about 200 miles of roadway to cover throughout the city. The deputy director of the DPW says they'll be keeping an eye on conditions throughout the night — depending on how bad conditions get — they will make the call to bring in more people.
By 11 p.m. Niagara Falls had 12 plow trucks out on the roads.
WATCH: Here is a look at what the roadways looked like Monday evening:
Road crews across Western New York have been out all day trying to clear the roads the best they can, and it's going to stay that way throughout the night in hopes of making it an easy morning commute.
"That's where we're focusing, at least our thought process with crews right now looking to bring on crews in the evening, early night and overnight to give the best opportunity to mitigate the storm for tomorrow morning," said Michael Finn Buffalo commissioner of Public Works. "I do want to reiterate as the mayor said... for people to definitely plan on leaving extra time for the morning commute tomorrow on Tuesday."
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