By Cheril Lee
Omaha, NE – The City of Omaha found itself in a snow emergency early last week as snow fell almost continuously over a 48-hour period.
Scott McIntyre, Street Maintenance Engineer for Omaha Public Works, says the storm gave the City a chance to test their new snow emergency procedures. Though many people complied with the new snow emergency rules, many others did not. McIntyre says adapting to new regulations always takes a bit of time. On the positive side, he says the City was better able to keep up with main streets thanks to the contractors' plows cleaning the residential streets. McIntyre says, "having the additional trucks from the 13 contractors that are working for us this winter and having all that equipment out there on the road in the residential neighborhoods made a big difference." He says the contractors were out most of the day on Monday and kept the residential streets in relatively good condition compared to what's been seen during previous storms.
McIntyre encourages residents to familiarize themselves with the City's emergency snow removal plan online at cityofomaha.org. Once there, click on the snow icon on the upper right side of the screen.