Philadelphia Residents Dig Out After Record Snowstorm
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- West Philadelphia streets took quite the beating. Main streets like Baltimore Avenue are clear but some smaller roads are still snow covered, leaving some neighbors around the city wondering when their street will finally be free of all this snow.
Days after Philadelphia's fourth largest snowstorm blanketed the city in white, its crippling effects are still plain to see.
"Just a bunch of cars backed up... stuck. Even people left them and I would have never left my car and came back," Charlie Whitmore, who lives in Southwest Philadelphia, told Eyewitness News.
While main roads were largely passable Monday, many two way streets had been converted to a single lane.
Sigel Street in South Philadelphia appeared completely untouched and perhaps unrecognizable.
"They got to come out and plow the street, they're plowing everybody else's street," said Melissa Karras, of South Philadelphia.
The commissioner of the Streets Department says about 10,000 tons of salt were used this weekend and it's still all hands on deck with crews.
At the city's fifth press briefing on the storm, officials explained why smaller streets are still filled with snow.
"For some of our smaller streets, the trucks that we use, the amount of snow that we have is larger than the plow that can fit into that street. So we have to shift some of our operations to one where we're using the bobcats... to lift and push snow from the streets," Clarena Tolson, Streets Department's Deputy Managing Director, explained.
From the streets to the sidewalk, University of the Sciences student Mahima Singh says more should have been done.
"It's hard to walk. I was lucky I have good shoes, but I feel bad for the elderly or kids," Singh said.
City officials says their goal is to have nearly all streets plowed and passable by Wednesday evening.
If you want to report a street that has not been plowed, you're asked to call 3-1-1.
Over the weekend, officials say they received a total of 9,000 calls.
That figure includes plow requests and other snow-related issues as well.
