PHILADELPHIA – Early Monday afternoon, Mayor Jim Kenney, Managing Director Mike DiBerardinis, Director of Emergency Management Samantha Phillips, Deputy Managing Director for Infrastructure and Transportation Clarena Tolson, SEPTA General Manager Jeff Knueppel and Executive Director of the Philadelphia Parking Authority Vince Fennerty provided their fifth update on the weekend’s emergency response and continuing blizzard clean-up efforts.

Phillips noted that “given the intensity of the storm, the City’s Emergency Operations Center had a very successful response.” Despite receiving the fourth greatest snow accumulation in the City’s history, no major incidents occurred and power outages were minimal. The City did not close early on Friday and opened on time Monday morning. Trash and recycling collection will resume Tuesday, January 26. To date, 1,800 miles of road have been plowed, and 10,000 tons of salt have been used. The Streets Department is working with twelve other departments and agencies to plow the streets. Collectively, they are at full deployment with approximately 400 plows and 600 personnel on the roads.

End of Snow Emergency & Deactivation of EOC

At 2 PM on Sunday, the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) was deactivated. While the snow response and recovery operations are still ongoing, they no longer require the centralized interagency coordination provided by the City’s EOC. Instead, the Office of Emergency Management’s 24-hour Regional Integration Center will resume monitoring city-wide events and snow removal operations to assist with interagency coordination.

At 10 PM Sunday evening, the City’s Snow Emergency was officially lifted. As a reminder, the Snow Emergency was extended through Sunday to assist with plowing operations. For citizens, the end of a Snow Emergency means that cars can once again be parked on Snow Emergency routes. Cars left on Snow Emergency Routes between Friday and Sunday evenings were likely relocated. Residents can call 215-686-SNOW to find their relocated car.

Emergency Response

The blizzard created the fourth greatest snow accumulation in the City’s history and, accordingly, required full activation of the EOC from 8 AM on Saturday to 2 PM on Sunday. During that time, 1,600 City workers reported for duty. The Police and Fire departments responded to 23,293 calls from Friday through Sunday. One-hundred-and-two homeless individuals were provided with supportive service outreach and over 2,000 individuals were housed in the shelter system. The city’s non-emergency call response center, 311, stayed open for extended hours and has answered 9,000 calls since Friday, lessening the burden placed on City Emergency Response Centers.

Plowing and Snow Removal Operations

While the Snow Emergency has been lifted, snow removal efforts remain ongoing. To date, 1,800 miles of road have been plowed, and 10,000 tons of salt have been used. The Streets Department is working with twelve other departments and agencies to plow the streets. They are at full deployment with approximately 400 plows and 600 personnel on the roads.

As the City’s primary roads are generally passable, secondary, tertiary and residential roads will be the main focus of current plowing efforts. All thorough-fares are expected to be passable by the end of the day on Wednesday.

All non-emergency calls regarding snowplowing and salting operations should be directed to 311.

Residents can expedite the plowing process by taking the following steps:

  • Residents should not park their cars too far from curbs or too close to corners of their blocks, as it makes it difficult for snow removal equipment to navigate the streets.
  • Property owners should not shovel or toss snow into the street, as they’re clearing their walks.\
  • Residents are also asked to clear snow and ice away from storm drains on their blocks to allow melting snow to flow directly down the drains. This will help prevent icy road conditions. With weather outlook of temperatures in the 40s in days following the storm, clearing snow and ice away from drains as conditions will be higher for flooding when large amounts of snow melt quickly.

Parking During Clean-up Efforts

In response to the ongoing clean up, the PPA will not be enforcing meter and kiosk parking violations today or Tuesday. However, the PPA will continue to ticket and enforce all safety violations. These violations are the following: Parking in front of fire hydrants, bus zones, no stopping anytime zones, handicap spaces, as well as for double-parking, blocking crosswalks and other similar safety violations.

Additionally, the PPA has extended its’ $5 discount garage parking rate until tomorrow morning, Tuesday January 26, at 7 AM for all vehicles parked in specified garages before midnight on Sunday Evening and for any vehicle entering a PPA garage after 5 PM today and exiting before 7 AM tomorrow in the following specified garages:

  • AutoPark at Independence Mall (5th & Market Streets)
  • AutoPark at Jefferson (10th & Ludlow Streets)
  • AutoPark at the Gallery (10th & Filbert Streets)
  • Auto Park at Old City (2nd & Sansom Streets)
  • Auto Park at 8th & Filbert Streets (801 Filbert Street)
  • 15th & Cherry Street.
  • Philadelphia Family Court Garage (1503-11 Arch Street – Going south on 15th Street, Enter the garage on the west side just after 15th & Cherry)
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