I want to thank all of you for your patience as the City tries to unbury itself from Friday and Saturday’s snow storm. After meeting with the Mayor today and several key administration officials, I have some information for you on why the clean-up has been slow moving and what next steps the City is taking to prepare for tomorrow’s storm.

First, while it is evident that the City needs to change its emergency management system given the slow response over the last four days, our public works employees have been working 12 hour shifts, plowing more than 1,000 miles of City streets. I know how frustrating this storm has been, I was without power and my car is still banked in snow. But the men and woman who are working on the ground have been working very long and very hard hours to try to get the City up and running again and I applaud their efforts.

Tomorrow starting at 10:00 AM, a winter storm warning will go into effect for the entire region and stay in effect until 7:00 PM Wednesday evening. We are expected to receive at least 6 to 10 inches of additional snow in that time. As of this e-mail the Pittsburgh Public Schools, as well as all major colleges and universities are closed tomorrow at the request of the City’s Public Safety Director.

Starting this morning, all City plows were rerouted off of the City’s main roads and on to neighborhood streets (so-called “secondary” and “tertiary”streets). The Department of Public Works has stated that they will be able to plow most neighborhood streets by the time snow starts falling again tomorrow.

Once the storm starts tomorrow, plows will be re-routed again to emergency roads and primary neighborhood roads. Once those roads are all clear, they will move back into the neighborhoods.

When the second storm starts tomorrow, there are some key safety measures that will help the City plow the roads and minimize the number of emergency calls it is receiving:

• Try to stay off the roads until they are plowed. One of the reasons plows have had a hard time getting into the neighborhoods is the number of vehicles that got stuck in the road Friday night and blocked a plow or emergency vehicle. It helps everyone to stay home when it snows.
• Try not to walk in the roads. While often times it is easier to walk on a driven-over or plowed street, it is not safe. If it is possible, please try to walk on sidewalks.
• Try not to shovel additional snow into the street and try not to block any fire hydrants. Try to shovel it into your yard, when it goes into the street it can slow the plows down even more.
• Call 911 for emergencies, and 311 for service requests. If you are not sure if your call is an emergency, call 911 anyway, they will be able to route your call. For your information, garbage pick-up and recycling have been suspended until further notice.
• The National Guard will be able to reach you. The National Guard responded to over 60 EMS calls last night, most of them for non-emergency medical needs. If you have a medical emergency, we will be able to reach you either with our EMS teams or with the National Guard.
• Keep fire hydrants free of snow. When you are shoveling your walk, it would help emergency crews if you were also able to shovel some space around any fire hydrants that are near your house.
• And last, please check on your neighbors, especially senior citizens. Being a good neighbor is what Pittsburgh is all about, so while you are outside, check on your neighbors to make sure they are ok.

Please continue to submit your 311 requests online through my office, we have passed on all of your comments and concerns, often times directly to the relevant department and bureau heads, and we are working as hard as can to make sure your streets are plowed sooner rather than later.