City crews struggling to keep up with heavy snowfall

The deluge is over. Let the shovelling begin.

Environment Canada's snowfall warning was ended late-morning Wednesday marking the end of a weather pattern that delivered an estimated 35 centimetres of snow to the city.

It was enough for the City of Prince George to issue a heavy-snowfall declaration and to say crews won't begin clearing residential streets until Saturday.

The declaration is declared whenever 20 centimetres of snow falls on the city over a 24-hour period. An extra 24 hours is added to the snow clearing effort for every eight centimetres of snow the city receives beyond the threshold.

“Due to a combination of high snow volumes and limited availability of contractors, snow clearing may be slower than normal in some areas,” the city said in a Facebook post. “A full complement of contracted equipment is not available due to the on-going effects of the COVID19 pandemic, and the approaching holidays. Our team is out in full force but we don't have as much contracted help as we would like.”

Prince George RCMP, meanwhile, are advising  that it may take emergency services longer to get to the scene of a crash because of road conditions, and drivers should bring warm winter clothing and have an emergency kit in their vehicle if they do travel.

For the duration of the heavy snowfall declaration, city crews will begin nighttime snow clearing and removal at 11 p.m. each night, instead of at midnight.

Snow clearing will start at the city’s Priority One routes, including the city’s main streets and boulevards, downtown business district and hospital area.

Priority Two areas include collector roads and commercial and industrial roads

Residential areas fall under Priority Three areas, and will be the last to be cleared.

“With limited contacted services available, I am extremely grateful that staff are willing to work through the holidays and miss time with their families to keep our roads safe,” city manager fleet and roads manager Jordan Wiseman said in a press release.

The accumulate depth of the snow at the Citizen office measured 46 centimetres as of midday Wednesday.

Plummeting temperatures remain in the forecast with a high of -19 C expected for Friday and then dropping below -20 C for the rest of the Christmas weekend while nighttime lows are to be south of -30 C.