City deploys 650 snow-removal tools, 300 workers to neighborhood streets

(CHICAGO) The city will deploy 650 pieces of snow-removal equipment Wednesday morning to continue clearing neighborhood streets of the weekend’s historic blizzard and more snowfall from Tuesday evening.

The blizzard had dropped 19 inches of snow by Monday, ranking as Chicago’s fifth snowiest storm.

On Tuesday, 1.6 inches of snow fell at O’Hare Airport between noon and midnight, said Andrew Krein, National Weather Service meteorologist based in Romeoville.

The city’s deployment Wednesday morning will include 315 snow plows and salt spreaders and 335 pieces of heavy equipment, like backhoes and dumps, according to a statement from Molly Poppe, spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Streets and Sanitation. The city is renting some of the heavy equipment that will be used, Poppe said.

Three-hundred workers from the city’s departments of transportation and water will shovel and dig out snow around schools, parks, bus stops, fire and police stations and fire hydrants, Poppe said.

A “pretty vigorous system” coming in from Nebraska during the day Wednesday could drop heavy snow south of Interstate 80, Krein said. But for Chicago and most area suburbs, less than an inch of flakes is expected, Krein said.