Top 10 Storm; Christmas Blizzard of 2010 One for the Record Books
by Journal Staff • December 29, 2010 • 3 Comments
Citizensbank ATM users got a cold and snowy reception at the ATM machine in the rear entrance to the Citizensbank Building at 385 Broadway following the big storm.
The Christmas Blizzard of 2010 left Revere and the region with a bang, logging in as the 10th largest storm since the 1890s.
Totals at Logan Airport ended up being 18.2 inches, though measurements were a little bit smaller in Revere and Winthrop – which had tallies of about 16 inches.
The totals at Logan Airport, though, put the storm in a tie for 10th place on the all-time list, which started in the 1890s, according to the National Weather Service's Taunton Station.
The storm also featured some extremely high winds, which plagued the City up until Tuesday morning – with some gusts on Sunday night into the 50 mph range.
In Revere, most agreed that the streets were cleared well, and plow operators and the Department of Public Works had done a very good job in combating the blinding snow.
"We put a lot of equipment on and we did a reasonably good job," said Mayor Tom Ambrosino. "There was a lot of snow and a lot of wind blowing it around…We have guys around like Paul Argenzio that have been here for 30 years and he knows how to run a storm. Chief Doherty has also been here a long time. They've both been through the Blizzard of `78, so they know what to do."
Fire Chief Gene Doherty said that they did close the tidegates on the Winthrop Parkway, which ended up preventing some bad flooding.
"We did get some wave action in Beachmont and they were spilling over the wall before high tide, so we were pretty worried," he said. "The tide gates ended up working great and stopped the water from going onto Leverett Avenue and flooding that whole area."
He said that there was also flooding incidents in the Point of Pines and on Riverside, near John Avenue.
Additionally, there was an electrical outage on Endicott Avenue in Beachmont that ended up lasting nearly seven hours.
There were no evacuations to any neighborhoods, though, he said.
Ambrosino said the City was ready to accommodate large amounts of people in an emergency shelter at Revere High School if the need arose. He also said they were ready with a smaller emergency shelter at the Pines Fire Station.
As far as snow budgets go, Ambrosino said this storm and the smaller one last week have not yet broken the bank.
The City budgeted $300,000 for snow removal, and that has not been exhausted yet. Cities and towns are allowed to carry a deficit to the following year for snow removal, and Revere typically does carry over such a deficit.
"I would think we probably still have a little bit in the budget left," he said. "This storm didn't linger for days and days. It hit us pretty quickly and moved out. Sometimes the smaller storms that are nuisance storms end up being more expensive than a big ones."
Ambrosino added that the City would not enforce its snow shoveling ordinance, though he encouraged everyone to clean his or her sidewalks. The City's ordinance calls for fines and tickets to be given out to those that do not shovel.
"We will not enforce sidewalk shoveling," he said. "That's a policy decision that some people do not like, but it's a policy of mine. The next administration can change it if they wish."
Residents who use mechanical snow blowers are urged to be careful when operating them.
Fire Chief Gene Doherty said that over this past storm, and also in recent years past, many people have injured their hands when trying to unclog snowblowers.
"They don't realize they have to shut them off first," said Doherty. "We had two snowblower incidents this weekend. The people had reached down to unclog the blowers and ended up mangling their hands pretty badly."
One of the incidents happened on Lancaster Avenue, and the other on Reservoir Avenue.
Doherty urged operators to make sure snowblowers are turned off before unclogging them.
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3 comments for "Top 10 Storm; Christmas Blizzard of 2010 One for the Record Books"
Ptjoe
Let me get this straight….the fire chief suggests I remove power to the snow-blower before sticking my limbs into it.
What are we, Lumberjacks?
This explains previous post better
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ0GbL4247M
As does this
Caterina12377
wow i know we cant figure out how to turn a machine these days come on people we do speak a english do we