Morning Blizzard Update from Worcester

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

GoLocal Worcester News Team

On Tuesday morning, the city of Worcester released an update on the current status of power outages, city shelters, parking violations, and snow clean-up.

According to the report, the majority of Worcester residents have "heeded City Manager Edward Augustus' warning and are staying off the road." However, the city did two 200 cars on Monday night. Still, that total is only half of the 400 that were towed during the smaller storm on Saturday.

Augustus said, "The public has been great during this storm, staying off the roads and letting the plows do their work as quickly and safely as possible. We’re asking people to remain patient while we try to keep the city’s main routes open.”

The report also states that Worcester hasn't seen any power outages and hasn't needed to make use of the shelter the city set up with the American Red Cross at Worcester Technical High School.

The remainder of the report reads:

"Now the bad news: The storm is dumping several inches of snow per hour on Worcester. The city has nearly 400 pieces of equipment clearing the streets. High winds and intense snowfall are making those efforts challenging. During the worst of the storm, their main focus will be on keeping the city’s major routes open for emergency vehicles.

Visibility has been a major issue. The Worcester Police Department is telling officers to keep their vehicles’ emergency lights on, even when not responding to a particular emergency, so their cruisers remain visible through the blowing snow.

National Weather Service is predicting heavy snow to continue through noon, tapering off throughout the evening. We are expecting another 8-10 inches, which would bring the city up to a maximum of 24-36 inches for the entire storm.

Residents who live on side streets should not expect their streets to be cleared until later in the day, at the earliest. City Manager Augustus is again reminding people who do not absolutely need to be on the roads to stay home. City Hall and other municipal buildings, the Worcester Public Schools and many local businesses are closed for the day. If you don’t need to be outside, please stay home."