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Storm Central: Hampton Roads still cleaning up after major snow storm

Posted at 6:25 AM, Jan 27, 2014
and last updated 2014-03-02 07:06:46-05

All winter weather advisories for the area have been lifted.

Hampton Roads Transit has canceled all service for Friday due to significant amounts of snow and ice that remain piled up on the curbs. Ferry service and light rail service has resumed and is operating on a normal schedule.

Dominion Power says their electrical system performed well during this week's storm. As of 5 a.m. on Thursday, they had more than 3,700 homes and businesses that experienced outages in 140 different locations.

Less than 100 were without power as of Thursday afternoon.

Dominion says some equipment problems including failed transformers,downed wires and blown fuses caused some of the outages.  They say this happened because of high stress from high usage and the low temperatures.

The biggest issues were in Gloucester, Williamsburg, Western Suffolk, Franklin and Williamston NC.

Here is an updated list of snowfall totals:

Elizabeth City: 6.2″

Hertford: 3.5″

Tyner: 6″

Zuni: 7″

Chesapeake: 10″

Carrollton: 7.2″

Franklin: 5.2″

South Norfolk/Chesapeake 7″

Oceana NAS: 8″

Norfolk NAS: 4″

Gloucester: 6″

Kempsville: 6.5″

Willoughby Spit: 10″

Norfolk Airport: 5.6″

Portsmouth: 8″

Surry: 4.5″

Wakefield: 3.9″

Suffolk: 5″

Great Bridge (Ches): 5″

Langley AFB: 6″

Poquoson: 5″

Wallops Island: 4″

Denbigh: 4″

Tabb York: 6.7″

Fox Hill: 7″

Williamsburg: 4.5″

Yorktown: 5″

Beaconsdale: 6″

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Local states of emergency were issued for Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Newport News and Chesapeake. The state of emergency allows access to state resources (such as additional plows and trucks from VDOT.)

Here's a few more specifics from some of our local areas:

Norfolk:

The City of Norfolk issued a local declaration of emergency at Noon on Tuesday, allowing them to track storm expenditures for reimbursement.

Public Works crews are working 24-hour shifts. They pre-treated bridges and overpasses before the storm and sent out plows once the snow started on Tuesday night.

Each shift has 21 trucks (9 combination plow/spreader, 7 plows and 5 spreaders only) and approximately 35-40 personnel.

Snow removal efforts are being focused mainly on primary routes (Ocean View, Chesapeake, Berkley, Indian River, Princess Anne, Brambleton, and Kempsville). These roads continue to be their main focus throughout the remainder of Wednesday and overnight into Thursday.

18 VDOT trucks are focused on Military Hwy, Hampton Blvd, Granby, Tidewater, Little Creek Blvd., Virginia Beach Blvd.

The City started out with 600 tons of sand and 800 tons of salt to treat the roads. Approximately 400 tons of sand and 650 tons of salt are left as of 4:00 p.m. Wednesday.

Residential roads will not be plowed due to equipment and safety concerns.

Crews are also focusing on clearing entrances to hospitals, police departments and fire departments so that emergency crews can get in and out.

Snow that has accumulated downtown will be hauled out and taken to Harbor Park.

Trash collection days that were canceled on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday have now been rescheduled. Waste Management will start to collect trash on Saturday, Feb. 1. They are asking that residents put cans near the curb no later than 8 a.m. Trash collection will continue through Monday, Feb. 3rd.

The normal schedule will resume on Tuesday, Feb. 4th.

If you have overflow materials that need to be collected, please put them in dark/opaque trash bag and set beside green collection containers.

Recycling, bulk, and yard waste will resume next Tuesday.

Household Hazardous Waste and Electronics Recycling The City’s Drop Off Center for household hazardous waste and electronics will reopen for regular operation on Monday, February 3rd at 10:00am

Virginia Beach:

The city declared a state of emergency due to the snowstorm.

The city says they will be tackling primary roads like Virginia Beach Boulevard, Independence Boulevard and Shore Drive, as well as secondary roads like Bonney Road and Witchduck Road.

Neighborhood streets will not be plowed.

The City of Virginia Beach will resume trash and recycling collections on Friday, January 31, 2014, beginning with the normal Wednesday collection area/routes.  Collections will continue on Saturday and Monday as needed to complete the Wednesday through Friday collection routes.

UPDATE: Road conditions in Virginia Beach

Chesapeake:

A local State of Emergency was issued for the City of Chesapeake on Tuesday. It was lifted on Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m.

Residents are asked to limit travel as much as possible, both for their own safety and to permit Public Works crews to plow streets and spread salt/sand. If you must drive, use caution, particularly if you encounter plows.

More than 60 disabled vehicles have been reported since midnight. Heavier numbers of those were reported Wednesday morning as people get out and get stuck.

Public Works crews have applied salt brine to bridges, overpasses, and primary roads since late Monday afternoon.

Crews switched to spreading a salt/sand mix around 7:00 p.m. Tuesday evening.

Chesapeake has 22 plow/spreader trucks and 1,900 tons of salt/sand mixture on hand with more expected to be delivered.

VDOT provided 12 additional trucks to assist. They were released when the State of Emergency for the City was lifted.

Public Works says they will keep two trucks on emergency routes to treat ramps and any icy spots. They are now focusing on the remaining primary and secondary roads.

They will spread a salt and sand mixture to soften the snow that can be plowed. They will continue this process until the roads are passable.

Right now they have 20 trucks and 18 of them are on the road.

As crews complete the removal of snow from streets, it may be necessary to temporarily halt traffic in certain areas for brief periods. This is to allow plows to move the snow across traffic lanes, clear turn lanes, and open median breaks. The stoppage will be brief and drivers are asked to please STOP WHEN DIRECTED and NOT ATTEMPT TO "RACE AHEAD" of plows. These actions are both unsafe and disruptive to the operation by creating delays in the process.

Crews are currently clearing the turn lanes on Emergency and primary routes - Battlefield, Greenbrier, Military, Portsmouth Blvd and Western Branch Blvd. Routes are generally in good condition. The Expressway, including ramps, is all clear. Secondary routes in southern Chesapeake (ex: Whitemore, Land of Promise) are 80% clear. They extended road clearing to a few neighborhood connector streets.

Residents whose normal trash and recycling collections are on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday should place their cans at the curb Friday and leave them until collected.

Collections will begin Friday and continue Saturday and again on Monday. Crews will work as quickly as conditions permit and are hopeful of being caught up by Tuesday.

Bulk Trash and Yard Waste collections are SUSPENDED until Tuesday.

Crews continue to plow Chesapeake roads

Portsmouth:

The City of Portsmouth lifted their local State of Emergency declaration at 1:00 p.m. Friday.

As of 9 p.m. on Thursday, Public Works reported that 98% of the primary roads are clear and about 75% of secondary roads are clear. Crews will continue with 24-hour operations.

Portsmouth Public Works continues to clear roads

All Portsmouth City offices and facilities will open with a two-hour delay on Friday morning, January 31st.

Trash, bulk, and recycling collections for Friday have been cancelled due to icy road conditions in the neighborhoods, and the collections have been rescheduled -- Thursday routes will be collected on Saturday and Friday routes will be collected on Sunday. Residents should place trash containers and recycling carts out by 7 a.m. Please leave containers out until they have been emptied. For more information, contact the Division of Waste Management at 393-8663.

The Public Works Department has made much progress with clearing the primary and secondary roads. As of 5 p.m., they reported that 98% of their primary roads were clear with all of them passable. Their focus on the secondary roads today cleared 60% of the secondary roads and this work will continue with 24-hour operations.

Hampton:

Thursday's sun helped melt snow and ice on roads; however, those newly-wet roadways are likely to re-freeze when the sun goes down. Crews are re-salting main roads.

Trash and recycling crews will resume pickups on Friday, hitting as many Thursday and Friday routes as possible on Friday. They will return to areas they can't get in on Saturday. Residents should take cans to the curb on the regular schedule and leave them until they are collected.

Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Hertford, Hyde, Martin, Northampton, Pasquotank, Perquimans: 

Governor Pat McCrory held a press conference on Wednesday morning. He says it has been a tough storm that was different than anticipated.

McCrory says to use sound judgement before you get out on the roads, be safe.

NCDOT Secretary AJ Tata says the NCDOT team has been working hard for the last three days in preparation for the storm.

The big focus now will be to do what they can to reduce the possibility for black ice.

Officials say they hope to get all primary roads cleared by Wednesday afternoon and then shift the focus to secondary roads.

All ferry operations are suspended because of windy conditions.

Governor Pat McCrory has signed two executive orders declaring a state of emergency for North Carolina.

Maintenance crews have spread salt brine on all N.C. and U.S. routes throughout the region. They are plowing roads and spreading salt and sand where necessary.

Crews will work in shifts around the clock to clear roads and make sure that they are safe for motorists.

Additional NCDOT trucks and crews have arrived in the region from areas in the western part of the state.

Trash and recycling collection in Corolla and Currituck County has been postponed until further notice.

Suffolk

Public works crews are working to treat roadways and they have been working on 12-hour shifts since the snow started.

They've cleared more than 400 lane miles of primary roadways. They've also cleared  184 miles of major secondary/arterial roadways.

Crews planned to start working on residential neighborhood roads on Thursday. They say this process could take several days. They are also looking to clear turn lanes since snow has been piled up from the roadways and it is now blocking a few areas.

Officials are asking folks to remove their parked vehicles from the roads in residential neighborhoods so that snow plows can do their work.

The trash pickup schedule will now shift by two days. Friday's refuse will be collected on Monday unless they are closed on that day as well.

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