The Badger Herald

NEWS

Storm causes pile-ups

Looking for a print version?
Simply choose ‘Print’ on your computer and a printer-friendly document will be generated.

Also by Cara Harshman:

Storm causes pile-ups (February 8, 2008)
Madison newspaper plans to cease daily print edition (February 8, 2008)
City digs out with ‘everything we got’ (February 7, 2008)
Alder proposes documentation (February 6, 2008)
Police advance in homicide case (February 4, 2008)

by Cara Harshman

Friday, February 8, 2008

The city of Madison and Dane County streets employees went without sleep Wednesday night as the cleanup from Wednesday’s snowstorm kept snow plows and emergency crews working all night Wednesday and all day Thursday.

Officially, 13.3 inches of snow fell on the city Wednesday, which was slightly below the 17.1-inch snowfall record set in December 1990. Madison has already seen 75.1 inches of snow this winter, according to streets superintendent Al Schumacher — one inch short of the all-time snowfall record.

“Our response was outstanding,” Schumacher said. He called it a “Herculean effort,” although the city has a lot more work to do.

Plows worked to clear the massive snow banks, Schumacher said, as they hauled the snow to five or six snow storing locations in city parks. “We’ve hauled more snow this season than ever before to my recollection, and I’ve been here 31 years,” he added.

The city utilized 165 pieces of snow equipment from outside contractors to adequately clear roads, according to Schumacher. Plows started salting roads at 6 a.m. yesterday and it has made a “drastic improvement.”

Dane County officials, along with troopers from the Wisconsin State Patrol and the National Guard responded to the miles of backed up cars on the interstates, said J.D. Lind, lieutenant for Wisconsin State Patrol.

The backup started when a tractor-trailer got stuck on a hill around 2 p.m., Lind said. By 11 p.m., more than 1,600 cars were gridlocked or stuck in snow ditches. Officials used snowmobiles, ATVs, helicopters, four-wheel-drive vehicles and Humvees to reach stranded drivers, Lind added.

Jerry Mandli, highway commissioner for Dane County, said it deployed around 60 snowplows to the emergency situation.

“We sent plows to drive in front of state patrol vehicles so they could get to people who were stuck,” he said.

Except for a diabetic person who needed insulin, Mandli said there were no known injuries on the highway.

People slept in their cars, Lind said, while they waited for the backup — which was reported to be as long as 17 miles — to subside. Traffic was moving slowly by 7 a.m.; all lanes were open by noon, and traffic was flowing as usual.

J. McLellan, public information officer for Dane County emergency management, said coordinating all the government organizations to work together to clear the highway effectively was extremely complex.

“With this phenomenal weather event, the response was massive,” McLellan said. “I don’t think people quite got it.”

Feedback

Show all comments

Hide anonymous comments

Anonymous (February 8, 2008 @ 9:18am):

Yeah, we got it, you virtually kidnapped thousands of people by not letting them off the freeway. You blamed it on a couple of semi's, when really it was just your incompetence.

Anonymous (February 8, 2008 @ 8:19pm):

9:18am are you kidding me????
The real question is why were those idiot people out driving in that weather to begin with?

Add a comment

We welcome your thoughts, but please keep your feedback thoughtful, on-topic and respectful. Offensive language, personal attacks, or irrelevant comments may be deleted.