A Message From Walpole TA Boynton on Friday's Snowstorm

The following is a message from Walpole Town Administrator Michael Boynton:

As of MEMA's last update, West Walpole was the highest snowfall recorded in the State (via SKYWARN) at 22.5 inches. With that dubious honor comes many costs & headaches that we must now address.  

Here a few items for you:  

1) Right off the top, yet another fine job by the Walpole DPW Crews and leadership in managing this storm. Crews started with sanding operations at 4AM Thursday, and didn't wrap up until 8PM tonight. In fact, three crew members are staying on duty until midnight to respond to any Police-reported emergencies as well as provide additional cleanup around the Downtown buildings.  

2) Crews will be back on duty tomorrow (Saturday) morning to resume cleanup and work on clearing Schools and Sidewalks to prepare for on time School opening Monday morning. Most main streets are at wet pavement, however several small side streets still have some degree of slush and/or snow on their surfaces. The melting tomorrow will greatly help there.  

3) Contractors had to be called in today (roughly 5AM) once it became clear that the extent of the storm was missed by all forecast teams. This simply wasn't expected thus our DPW leaders responded "on the fly", and did so very well to safely get us through the two-day storm.  

4) As such, we will most certainly run into a deficit condition after all the bills come in for this. We will try to get an estimate as soon as possible.  

5) We had one minor accident at the tail end of operations when a Jeep struck one of our plows exiting the DPW yard on Washington Street. There were no injuries and damage to the Jeep appeared to be minor.  

6) Given the weight of the heavy wet snow, we have had a number of mailbox casualties in the past two days. As a reminder, we do not replace mailboxes. We will do our best to repair if circumstances so allow.  

7) Non-DPW staffing increases were very small in comparison to the Blizzard last month, with only two added fire personnel called up to provide for added coverage. Also, given the low predictions on a storm 500 miles offshore, we did not implement an EOC during this event. All Town offices excluding Schools were open today.  

8) Originally we had hoped to rely on the warm weather over the next several days to address the need for snow removal Downtown. Given the amount of snow however, we may need to manually remove some or all next week. We will watch the forecast for next week and evaluate the situation early Monday. If at all possible I would like to avoid that cost of removal, however safety conditions will dictate what our actions will be.  

9) It is far too early in the game to know if any federal or state reimbursements will be available to us for this storm. In fact, we are still waiting to see if we will qualify for $$ from NEMO.  

10) The usual precautions are strongly encouraged here again:           

a) Residents should be certain to clear all built up snow away from any gas or oil boiler/furnace vents the outside of their homes to prevent dangerous carbon monoxide from backing up into the home or business.           

b) Residents are asked once again to locate and if possible shovel out your closest fire hydrant.           

c) Please check in on an elderly, disabled or shut-in neighbor.          

d) Avoid any downed wires at all times.  

11) My next concern is for flooding. You may have already noticed that many area streams, rivers, brooks and ponds were filling up rapidly with the rain and snow-melt we have experienced in the last month. Add nearly three inches of water content to already saturated soils and the threat of river & stream flooding from even a small rain storm is a possibility. We will need to watch our Town ponds & dams and act accordingly.  

If so needed, an additional update will be provided toward the end of the weekend. Again, strong work once again by our DPW in very adverse conditions. A job well done!  

Please feel free to call with any questions. Thank you!  

Michael