City's Blizzard Clean Up May Take Several Days

The city Public Works Department ended the snow emergency parking ban downtown on Sunday morning, but crews will have to work several nights to clear all of the sidewalks and remove the piles of snow.

Steve Parkinson, director of the Portsmouth Public Works Department, said crews were scheduled to begin clearing downtown sidewalks on Sunday night. He said he would take at least two- to three days for crews to clear all of the sidewalks and remove the large piles of snow banks that were created during the weekend storm clean up.

Public works crews managed to clear all of the city's streets and municipal parking lots during the weekend, but were not able to deal with the sidewalks until Sunday night. The city's snow removal operations and high, gusty winds that created blowing snow left sidewalks throughout much of the downtown buried in snow.

Parkinson also said that public works crews will be digging out the city's parking machines and fire hydrants. While people are now allowed to park along city streets again after the snow emergency was ended on Sunday, Parkinson could not say on Sunday how the city would enforce parking if the parking machines are still buried under the snow.

"As we remove the snow from the areas the machines/meters will be made accessible," Parkinson wrote in an e-mail.

Shortly after the Blizzard of 2013 finished dumping about 2 feet of snow on the city Sunday afternoon, Portsmouth residents began the long process of digging out their driveways and cars.