While residents prepare for the next snowstorm, crews from the City of Weyburn have been busy clearing the streets from the storm that hit last week. Areas such as downtown and the priority routes were cleared rather quickly, and then the crews started tackling other areas.  

"At the time it hit, a lot of our goal was just to get passable lanes so people could maneuver throughout the city, so we did a lot of windrowing into the middle of the streets,” explained Jennifer Wilkinson, the Director of Engineering with the City of Weyburn. “This past week we’ve been going back and removing windrows on the tighter side streets to get them removed so that it would help with flood mitigation as well as making it easier for people to park back on to their streets again.” 

Even though the work of cleaning up from the last storm is continuing, the crews are also having to prepare for another dumping of snow. With 20-30 centimetres of snow in the forecast for Saturday, preparations are already underway.  

“Our equipment is all equipped from the last storm, so we don’t have to go back and put the wings on and have the graders prepared and the sand and salt truck is ready; we left it up and going from the last weekend,” Wilkinson added. “I guess the only bonus to the second storm around is we’re prepared from the storm last weekend.” 

The fact there is some freezing rain included in the forecast for this storm will change one thing. Crews will be making sure the salt and sand truck will be ready, as it may have to go out before the snow removal starts. Snow removal generally starts after the storm starts to die down. 

During the last storm, there was also the call to advise travel within the city was not recommended, as a number of vehicles were getting stuck, causing further hazards. Wilkinson explained that emergency services will be in constant contact with the crews from the City of Weyburn, and if it is deemed necessary for public safety, similar advisories may be issued.