With snow cleanup in progress, city tallies the numbers

As the city continues to clean up after Winter Storm Jonas, Mayor Jim Kenney asked Philadelphians to be patient, and called the blizzard the fourth greatest snowfall in city history.

“We do appreciate your patience,” he told a gaggle of reporters during a post-storm update Monday afternoon at City Hall.

“We’re getting to your streets. We have to take care of the big ones first that affect the most people – but we haven’t forgotten you. We are coming or we are already there,” he said.

Managing Director Mike DiBerardinis said that the city’s state of snow emergency had been lifted as of 10 p.m. Sunday night, meaning that cars are once again allowed along snow emergency routes.

Here’s some manpower by the numbers from this weekend’s snow cleanup efforts, according to the city’s director of emergency management, Samantha Phillips:

Police and fire departments fielded more than 23,000 calls from the public; fire and EMS had upwards of 34 percent more calls than their daily average; 102 homeless people were provided with supportive services through outreach workers; and more than 2,000 homeless people were in the city’s shelter system.

“This blizzard created the fourth greatest snow accumulation in the city’s history, and required the activation of the city’s emergency operations center from 8 a.m. Friday morning to 2 p.m. Sunday, at full level,” said Phillips.

“When we have such increased snow like this, our medics have difficulty navigating through such depths of snow, so they improvise and find a solution by using police and fire vehicles to get individuals to hospitals.

“We had a success story of a woman who delivered a baby over the weekend,” she said.

Deputy Managing Director Clarena Tolson said that from the start of the storm, city workers have plowed nearly 1,800 miles of city streets and used more than 10,000 tons of salt. There are currently 390 plows in operation.

“This is full force,” she said.

As usual during snowstorms, the Philadelphia Park Authority asked that people not park too closely to corners, as snow plows and salting equipment need extra room to maneuver.

Tolson said she expects all streets – both main and side streets – to be cleared by the end of day Wednesday.