In a camel hair coat, East Providence Mayor Bob DaSilva might seem a bit overdressed for the snow plow.
Even so, DaSilva climbed into the passenger seat of a DPW Chevy Thursday to survey the city streets.
“A lot of snow – record-breaking snow,” DaSilva said, shaking his head as he looked out over the dashboard.
Three days after the record-breaking blizzard whalloped the region, most of the streets in Rhode Island’s fifth-largest city are snow canyons: blacktop visible down the center, with walls of white on either side. East Providence has about 160 miles of roads, with plenty of winding curves and 90 degree angles.
“It’s a lot different than when you’re plowing an interstate highway or a long straight road,” the mayor said.
By Friday, work crews across Rhode Island made steady progress, helped by warmer weather and help from other states. But, given the sheer volume of snow, the task is overwhelming.
Gov. Dan McKee has offered cities and towns plenty of help. Before the storm hit, he activated the National Guard and has deployed Guard units to help clear walkways and public areas.
He also put out a call to other states in the region for mutual aid, invoking the Emergency Management Agency Assistance Compact. Crews from Connecticut, Maine, Pennsylvania, and Vermont responded, arriving in Rhode Island with a fleet of heavy machinery and fresh work crews to help with storm cleanup.
McKee met with members of the Maine National Guard deployed to help with cleanup efforts. Rhode Island will pay the other states for the assistance.
Teams from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation worked in Pawtucket and Cranston. Westerly had help from Connecticut crews.
Along Taunton Road in East Providence, two of the eight trucks Vermont chipped into the cleanup effort did some heavy lifting.
“Our strategy has been to get a pass down the middle of every road in case of an emergency,” DaSilva said. “And then they focused their intention on widening the road as much as they can.”
In Newport, the narrow colonial roads pose a different challenge. Instead of relying on massive machines, crews there have been making steady progress with smaller plows and snowblowers, according to city spokesman Tom Shevlin.
“We have a John Deere with a snowblower that we’re actually using to clear streets – it’s intended to clear sidewalks,” Shevlin said. “We’ve deployed it, and we’ve been able to use it to clear our narrow streets. And that operator with that snowblower has been an absolute Godsend. He’s like the little engine that could.”
With help from crews from Connecticut, Westerly has cleared most of the streets and is focused now on downtown, according to town manager Sean Lacey.
“Down by the ocean you can just push the snow onto people’s property,” he said. “In town, it’s more difficult because people need to be able to use the sidewalks to get around.”
Lacey has worked for the town of Westerly for nearly 40 years, first as a police officer and later in town government. He said he’s never seen anything like this week’s storm – not even the fabled Blizzard of ‘78.
“I usually tell people in 1978, I was in elementary school and had no responsibility but school, and it was fun,” Lacey said. “Now, it’s not so much fun trying to deal with it.”
