Snow, man – emergency and snow removal professionals prepare for biggest storm of the season

If predictions are correct, the snowstorm coming this weekend will be the biggest in at least a couple of years. Local emergency and snow removal agencies are taking steps to prepare for snowfall that could approach two feet in a short amount of time.

People hoping to use electricity – such as to watch playoff football, for example – will be glad to know that power providers are preparing to limit any outages that result from the storm.

Seth Wheeler, spokesman for the New Hampshire Electric Co-op, said the utility has made preparations for a major snowstorm that could lead to power outages.

The National Weather Service was predicting more than a foot of snow across a wide swath of the state, but Wheeler said much will depend on the type of snow that falls.

"We can take feet of light, fluffy snow without any problem, but heavy, wet snow builds up on branches and they fall into power lines," he said.

"All of our district offices are fully stocked with supplies needed in the event of a significant outage. An availability list has been compiled so that workers know they could be needed this weekend. Private contract crews are on standby and ready to be activated."

Eversource is making similar preparations, said Vice President of Electric Operations Joe Purington. “We are closely monitoring weather conditions and planning accordingly, so we have crews in position to respond and be there for our customers when they need us.”

At the Laconia Fire Department, Assistant Chief Jay Ellingson said the trucks and ambulances are stocked with shovels and sand buckets, as well as the usual hoses, ladders and medications. If there’s a little snow, the trucks have automatic chains to help get up a slippery hill or driveway. Once the snow gets deep, the fire trucks can be fitted with tire chains.

If the road or driveway conditions are particularly bad, the fire or ambulance crew might call the city’s Department of Public Works for a snow plow.

“Right now, looking at the weather report, we’ll have three inches by midnight (on Saturday), eight inches by 6 a.m. on Sunday,” then the intensity of the precipitation will lessen but the snow will keep falling through the afternoon on Sunday, said Wes Anderson, Laconia DPW director. Then, even as the snow fall might have stopped, the wind will pick up and blow the fallen snow around. “If people are driving, they might not know the difference. It might seem like a bad storm when it blows,” he said.

To prepare for the storm, he said his crews sought out the icy stretches of sidewalk and treated them with sand, so that they will have some traction once they’re covered with snow. They also filled their salt and sand sheds with 1,000 tons of each, and put sanders on the backs of the plow trucks.

While the DPW crew is plowing, the sand and salt in the trucks will mostly just sit there as ballast, except for the trickle that is allowed to flow through so that it doesn’t freeze in the spreader. It won’t be until after the roads are cleared that sand and salt will be spread in earnest.

Anderson announced a winter storm emergency which, in combination with the usual winter parking ban, will prohibit parking on winter streets from midnight on Saturday until 6:30 a.m. on Monday morning. “One of the issues we always face is cars on the street. In a blizzard it’s hard to see them,” Anderson said.

“This is going to be a long, drawn-out storm for us, based on how they’re predicting it,” Anderson said.

And not just for his crews, as lots of commercial plowing contractors are planning for how they’ll take care of their customers during the storm.

Bill Price, owner of Turfpro, said his workers have been checking and servicing equipment for much of the week.

“We try to plan a week in advance,” said Price, who noted that weather forecasters started talking this past Monday about the possibility of the Northeast being hit by a big weekend snowstorm.

Price said once the snow starts falling, he and 12 employees will hit the road. His company’s seven plow trucks will be going nonstop during the storm, clearing snow from roadways and driveways and parking lots at the condominium and commercial property customers.

Hayden McLaughlin, owner of Belknap Landscape Co. Inc., is expecting his workers, too, will be putting on a full-court press as they deal with the storm. All of the company’s 23 plow trucks and 12 pieces of heavy equipment will be in operation, continuously plowing commercial properties, including the large parking lots at Walmart Plaza, Tanger Outlets in Tilton, and the Hannaford and Shaw’s supermarkets in Gilford. Some 30 additional workers will be busy shoveling, McLaughlin said.

How much snow falls is not the only concern.

Both McLaughlin and Chris Haddock, owner of CBH Landscape Contractors, said predictions of strong winds on Monday mean there will be lots of drifting snow which will have to be plowed even after the skies have cleared.

Haddock said it’s fortunate that one of his customers, Bank of New Hampshire, will be closed Sunday and Monday, giving his crews more time to get the parking lots clear of snow before banks reopen on Tuesday.

CBH will deploy 12 or 13 plow trucks for the storm. One of those trucks, Haddock pointed out, will spend the entire storm just plowing the large parking lot at Funspot. The plow operators will be augmented by another five workers shoveling walkways.