 Residents found that if they were able to get out of their driveway,
most city streets were drivable thanks to a full-out push by the
city street department to get plows on the road shortly after the
Blizzard of 2011, known not so fondly as "The Beast," began pounding
the area with heavy snow, high winds, drifting and whiteout
conditions.
While there are piles of snow throughout town, and city streets
may be a bit narrower right now due to the plowing of snow, the
bottom line is that during the storm there were no major fires, no
horrific car crashes and to the best of everyone's knowledge no loss
of life. In short, the city beat "The Beast."
However, it was not without a great deal of effort and
cooperation among city departments, their county counterparts and
the Logan County Emergency Management Agency.
At the Monday night meeting of the city council, Mayor Keith
Snyder asked the city department heads to comment on their
experiences with the storm.
City police
Police Chief Ken Greenslate said he wanted to start by thanking
Chief Mark Miller of the Lincoln Fire Department and Tracy Jackson,
street superintendent, for the use of their four-wheel drive
vehicles in some of the emergency situations the police encountered.
He noted that without the four-wheel drives, the city police
officers would not have been able to assist over 50 stranded
motorists.
He recounted one event that happened on Route 66 near the Burwell
Oil Co., where a tractor-trailer jackknifed, blocking both lanes of
the road and leaving six motorists stranded in terrible conditions.
Greenslate said several of his officers volunteered to stay over
and assist with calls. He also noted that the police department
logged 37.5 hours of overtime at a cost of $1,389.54.
City fire
Fire Chief Mark Miller handed out a document outlining the
meetings that were held by the Logan County EMA and the plans that
were put into place in advance of the storm for cooperation between
all the emergency service agencies.
He noted that thankfully there were no major fire emergencies,
although there were several calls for emergency medical assistance
in the period from Monday evening to Wednesday morning.
The department did bring in emergency generators in case of a
loss of power, but they were not needed.
In emergency costs, Miller said that he did expend $830 to get
one pickup ready for heavy snow, including a new set of new tires.
City sewer
Waste treatment manager Bob Tackett said that the only problem
his department encountered was loss of power to the lift stations on
Pulaski and Singleton, due to line breaks at Ameren. Both stations
had backup generators and power was quickly restored.
He added there were no major issues at the processing plant.
Street department
Jackson said that plows were running continually the night of the
storm. There were incidents where plows were pulled away from their
routes to assist in other emergencies.
He noted that one plow was used to drive police officers around
on old Route 66 to check for stranded motorists.
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The city also plowed the driveway and parking area at Zion
Lutheran School so it could be used as a shelter and plowed open the
access to the Holiday Inn Express. Several of the nurses from
Abraham Lincoln Hospital had spent the night so that they could be
on duty at the hospital the next morning.
In addition, the city had to assist in digging out Ameren trucks
that had parked overnight at Russell Stover Candies, as they were
drifted in and couldn't drive out on their own.
The city had to do emergency snow removal at the Sysco plant.
Jackson said there was a stranded semi in the lot. In trying to bust
through a 6-foot drift, the driver had buried his truck in it, and
digging him out was a lengthy effort.
And, as of Monday the city had hauled 348 truckloads of snow from
the downtown area.
The total cost incurred by the street department as of Monday
came to $16,925.90, with $6,715.90 being wages and the rest
equipment costs. Jackson said that every plow was stuck at least
once during the storm, and repairs to equipment included two new
tires for the dump truck, two wiper motors, one mirror and some
other minor issues.
Alderman David Armbrust said he spent part of the evening riding
along in a city pickup with a plow on it. He said it was an
interesting experience and noted that most of the time visibility
was terrible.
Snyder said he felt like overall the city had done a fine job of
tackling "The Beast." He said he had received favorable comments
from the public regarding the road conditions.
City attorney Bill Bates also commented that he had no
expectations of being able to drive the city streets on Wednesday
morning and was very impressed when he found that the streets were
cleared well enough he was able to get to work.
In conclusion, while "The Beast" didn't drop the 15 to 20 inches
of snow on Lincoln that was first expected, the 12 inches we did get
was more than enough to challenge local officials.
It speaks quite well of all the city departments, the local EMA
and other organizations such as Red Cross and Salvation Army that
they were all able to work together, devise and implement a plan,
and keep the city of Lincoln up and running to the best of its
ability during a tough situation.
[By NILA SMITH]
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