MEMPHIS, TN -- The early morning heavy snow Monday, February 8, 2010, was a surprise to everyone, including Memphis road crews.
Sand and salt trucks got a slow start this morning across the city. A couple inches had already fallen before many of the trucks even got out onto the roadways.
Eyewitness News talked to the City's Public Works Director Dwan Gilliom about the slow start.
"When we went to bed last night, we were under the impression based on the information on hand, that snow wouldn't hit until sometime later this morning. With that in mind we decided not to bring crews in last night," said Gilliom.
Memphis city crews weren't the only ones who were surprised. No one expected the heavy snow.
That's why Memphis roadways were snow covered and slick in the early morning hours. The heaviest snow started around 6:00 a.m. making it difficult for drivers.
"Don't know if a lot of people celebrated for the Super Bowl last night, usually it doesn't take us this long to get crews activated and in,” Gilliom said.
Gilliom also says the crews were put on standby last Friday afternoon before they left work.
"We knew when we left Friday there was a good possibility that we could receive some sort of precipitation sometime Monday. We did load many of our trucks and had them on standby, ready to go,” said Gilliom.
After 7:30 a.m., 15 of the 18 salt trucks scheduled to be out were doing the job while three trucks were having mechanical problems.
"Doing everything we can for the next 24 hours trying to reduce any major driving hazards," said Gilliom.
In the end, their hard work and increasing temperatures helped clear the streets of the deep snow.
