Why Should Delaware Care?
Earlier this month, Delaware was hit by one of the largest snowstorms in a decade. As a result, community members have expressed frustration with a lack of progress for snow removal. School districts have also remained closed while holding remote learning days because of road and sidewalk conditions.
Days after a crippling snowstorm swept through New Castle and Kent counties, residents say many residential streets remain treacherous, with corresponding sidewalks and parking strips that are impassable.
The tough conditions have been impeding everything from daily commutes to school openings.
Parts of Kent County received more than 6 inches of snowfall on Sunday, while New Castle County saw up to 10 inches, according to the National Weather Service. Freezing rain then in some areas added an inch of solid ice atop that accumulation.
While Gov. Matt Meyer lifted an initial state of emergency on Monday, temperatures have remained frigid with highs regularly in the teens and the overnight low on Wednesday reaching the single digits.
The cold temperatures mean that much of the snow has compacted into a dense layer of ice, which has stifled cleanup crews, according to state and city transportation officials.
For residents, the situation has left them questioning when their neighborhoods, walkways, side streets, and bus routes will finally be clear.
“Unfortunately, we are experiencing temperatures below what is required for salt to be effective, and because the ongoing freezing temperatures are keeping the snow from melting, there’s limited space to deposit the plowed snow,” said Caroline Klinger, a spokeswoman for Wilmington Mayor John Carney.
C.R. McLeod, a spokesman for the Delaware Department of Transportation, said that the agency has plowed all New Castle County roads that it is responsible for — and that its equipment can safely fit onto — “at least once.”
DelDOT is responsible for clearing about 90% of the roads in Delaware, including all that lie along public transit routes, McLeod said. And while all DART bus routes have been plowed, McLeod noted that some bus stops may still be covered in snow.
Progress in Kent County has been “slower going,” McLeod said, because there is a higher buildup of difficult-to-remove ice.
“With the freezing temperatures, we’re certainly not getting any melting action to assist in the clearing of the road,” he said.
DelDOT officials plan to clear all roads the agency is responsible for and can access by the end of Friday. Still, McLeod said that roads won’t be completely clear until temperatures rise and melting can occur.
While DelDOT is responsible for most state roads, many local jurisdictions have their own public works departments that are responsible for clearing streets. Those operations have also attracted scrutiny from residents who struggled to navigate untreated side streets in the days following the snowstorm.
In a statement released Wednesday, Wilmington City Councilman James Spadola said the city should continue plowing with a focus on street parking spots, transit routes, and crosswalks.
He also suggested that the city should contract with private parking lots where crews can dump snow.
“I’ve been pushing the city and public works to just manage expectations. How long is it going to take? Because we’re not getting relief from Mother Nature. It’s going to come from the hard-working employees of the city, and we’ve got to keep at it,” Spadola told Spotlight Delaware.
City residents have told Spotlight Delaware that the snow that remains has left them without ways to access their daily commutes.
Andrea Santiago, a Browntown resident, said snow blocked the walkway in front of her row home, as well as her handicap parking space, preventing her from leaving in case of an emergency.
Santiago, who is disabled due to past strokes, said the snow and ice make it impossible for her to use her wheelchair and could also limit access for ambulances.
Although friends initially cleared her area, she said others later piled snow back in front of her home while digging out their own cars. Santiago noted that she has not been able to get in touch with the city’s service center, and said she has not seen or heard a city snowplow on her street since Monday.
“Anything that’s clean here is because the people have been doing it themselves,” she said.
Klinger, of the mayor’s office, said several crews worked overnight on plowing and snow extraction, and these efforts will continue “until all roadways are passable,” adding that there is no timeline as to when neighborhood streets will be plowed.
Click here to track Wilmington’s snow plows.
Trash pick-ups in Delaware’s largest city have also been delayed until Monday as a result of the freezing temperatures, city officials said in Facebook posts on Wednesday.
Other areas in New Castle County have also been impacted.
Middletown resident Amber Kelly said her husband had to miss two days of work because his work truck, which was parked in front of their house, was blocked in by snow after the town’s snowplow came through to clear their neighborhood street, pushing snow up against residents’ cars.
“With the streets not being properly cleared, it’s creating several issues for families, not just the fact that they’re stuck in their driveways,” Kelly said.
While less snow fell on Sussex County last Sunday, parts of it did receive a layer of freezing rain on top of snow. Additionally, forecasts show that southern Delaware could receive another layer of snow this weekend.
How have schools been impacted?
Icy conditions have also impacted school districts’ ability to pick up students, with many roads remaining impassable to school buses.
All New Castle County school districts have been closed since Monday. Many started virtual classes on Wednesday.
Three of the four school districts that serve Wilmington — Brandywine, Colonial, and Christina — cited impassable neighborhood roads and sidewalks as reasons for closures.
“While some roads have been cleared, others remain hazardous with compacted snow and ice, and we want to ensure that no student is left waiting outside for buses in unsafe or uncertain situations,” the Christina School District wrote in a message released to families.
Colonial Supervisor of Transportation Marc Emerick told Spotlight Delaware that he drives through the district’s neighborhoods frequently to look for a clear path buses can go down and to ensure that students have a safe spot where they can wait.
Emerick then takes information he has gathered about the road conditions to the district’s leadership, who ultimately makes the decision to close schools.
Both the Brandywine and Red Clay Consolidated school districts’ transportation departments described similar systems.
Emerick has driven along these routes periodically since Sunday morning, and said the district’s smaller neighborhoods, “who are digging themselves out,” have been impacted the most by the storm.
“If you are fortunate enough to live in a neighborhood with a DART route, you know that at least some of your roads are going to be tended to by DelDOT, which is the most effective way of clearing a road,” he said.
Communities that are not near a DART route or roads that DelDOT plows may rely on contractor services to clear the snow.
But Emerick said districts must also check the passability of streets, because some contractors’ plows do not create a path wide enough for the buses. If a bus gets stuck or experiences a minor fender-bender that does not impact student safety, it can still delay students picking up for an hour.
“That would force students to wait even longer at their stops in these cold temperatures,” Emerick said.
Brandywine Transportation Supervisor Clarence Smith said that sometimes the sidewalks are not cleared even if the main roads are plowed, meaning students would have to walk in the street to reach their bus stop.
“That’s a real concern,” Smith said.
In Kent County, the Lake Forest School District reopened its buildings on Wednesday, but with a two-hour delay. The district also had to adjust certain bus stops due to conditions in those areas.
The Caesar Rodney and Milford school districts reopened on Thursday, but with a two-hour delayed schedule.
Starting Friday, Smith and his staff will be driving throughout the Brandywine School District and looking for potential hub stops, or safe locations where a bus can pick up a large number of students, so that students can potentially be picked up for school next week.
The Red Clay Consolidated School District’s goal is also to welcome students back to the classroom on Monday, Director of Transportation Kelly Shahan wrote in a statement to Spotlight Delaware.
Shahan said in order to do that, there will need to be a “community effort” to ensure students have safe walking paths to bus stops, clear areas to wait for the bus, and “encouraging civic associations if applicable to have the roads plowed.”
Shahan also said the district has been in conversation with state, county, and city leadership to address trouble areas and because “our students need to be in school.”