Middletown Mayor gives storm update

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (WTNH) -- The City of Middletown released an updated statement Monday afternoon regarding the status of cleanup in the city.

Good Afternoon,

We continue to make progress and have requested assistance from the State of Connecticut.

At this time, the vast majority of our streets are "passable," but some secondary and tertiary streets have not yet been plowed and we are getting crews to those as quickly as we can.

By passable we mean that a vehicle can get down the street if need be, but "passable" does not mean the road is entirely clear or easy to traverse.

Dead ends and cul-de-sacs are taking a very long time to clear and crews are working on those areas today. There are a small number of streets city-wide that have not yet been made passable and our crews are working to get to them as quickly as possible.

When every road is passable we will focus on the process of widening streets so they have at least two clear lanes of traffic. That process will take several days as we remove snow.

We have been following our emergency operations plan since Friday, and we continue to make progress. To put it in perspective, we received an entire winter's worth of snow between Friday and Saturday mornings.

We have heard from many people on residential streets that they have not seen a plow truck since Friday evening. The reason is that our first priorities were clearing main roads, the hospital, our fire departments, and police station while simultaneously ensuring that police, medical, and firepersonnel could reach 911 callers.

Fire trucks and ambulances were getting stuck in major snowdrifts during and after the storm. Our Public Works Department has been escorting police vehicles, fire trucks, and ambulances to 911 calls since the onset of the storm. They have also cleared paths for CL&P crews to the 350 power outages the city experienced.

We have also brought in additional contractors since the start of the storm to assist the Public Works Department. It will take the better part of a week to clear the streets entirely.

Our cleanup is also being slowed by the freezing rain that is falling now and making the snow heavier.

We remind residents to shovel their roofs and clear decks if possible to prevent collapses.

We are imploring you to stay off the streets. Vehicular and pedestrian traffic is slowing the City's cleanup and with the onset of rain it will become even more difficult.

I thank you all for your patience and understanding as we continue to clear out from this massive and historic snowstorm.

This is a challenging time for us but we are working hard and we will get through it together.

Thank you.

Any town or city officials who would like to submit a storm status update to News 8, can do so by sending them to webproducer@wtnh.com.