Blizzard brings Greater Lynn area to heel

A major blizzard dumped close to 20 inches of snow on the region, closing city and town halls as officials enacted snow emergencies so crews could clear the streets.Flood waters closed two roads in Swampscott for a few hours early Monday morning and there were reports of minor flooding in Revere.There was also some scattered power outages in Swampscott thanks to a stinging and powerful wind, and reports of numerous minor accidents in the area.But the toughest part of the storm for city and town officials may be weathering the cost of cleaning up after it.Lynn Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said she expects the storm clean-up will cost the city roughly $500,000.”The good news is that because the governor declared a state of emergency, we will be eligible for some money,” Kennedy said.She closed City Hall for the day on Monday after the city got anywhere from 16 to 19 inches of snow.”With the snow emergency in effect and the DPW still working to clean the roads, I thought why complicate things by having a few hundred employees on the streets of Lynn,” Kennedy said Monday.Jay Fink, the Department of Public Works Commissioner for the city of Lynn, said crews began working to pre-treat the roads early Sunday morning and lifted the city’s snow emergency and parking ban at 3 p.m. Monday.”We were actually out treating the roads at 5, 5:30, yesterday (Sunday) morning because we had flurries come in before the storm,” Fink said.At the storm’s height, there were more than 250 pieces of equipment on Lynn roads, Fink said, including about 210 private contractors and the rest city workers, many of whom worked for at least 30 hours straight fighting the storm.The two biggest problems clean-up crews faced Monday were dealing with drifting snow and re-plowing roads they had already plowed because people had either shoveled or used snow blowers to throw snow in the street.”You’ve spent all night in white-out conditions pushing the snow back ? and then when people wake up they snow-blow the snow out in the street, it is frustrating,” Fink said.It’s particularly frustrating because the city is already deficit-spending to pay for snow removal, which means free cash that could have been used to address public safety concerns is being spent to re-plow roads, he said.The Lynn City Council as early as tonight could vote on an ordinance where residents could be fined $100 for pushing snow into the street.The storm also canceled trash collection on Monday, so trash that had been scheduled for pick-up Monday will be picked up today, along with the normal Tuesday trash collection, Fink said.Lynn Fire Chief Dennis Carmody said firefighters spent time shoveling walks to reach patients during the height of the storm late Sunday night and early Monday.”That’s pretty common in that type of weather,” Carmody said. “You have to get the patient out, but sometimes the stairs aren’t shoveled, the walkway isn’t shoveled and you’ve got to get into the house.”Firefighters also responded to a call at around 8 a.m. Monday on Washington Street for a woman giving birth. They rushed to the scene, but the woman delivered before they arrived, Carmody and Kennedy said.”Both mother and baby are doing fine,” Carmody said.Saugus Town Manager Andrew Bisignani closed Town Hall Monday, giving some town employees an extended vacation, except for Department of Public Works employees, who were called in before the storm hit.Public Works Superintendent Joseph Attubato said he was just getting ready to call in contractors to start plowing when a water main at the corner of Elmwood Avenue and Cedar Street gave way.Attubato said residents were without water for only a short period of time, but his workers got no respite. “The same guys who did the work on the water main went right to work plowing snow,” he said.Paul Penachio, Firefighter and Director of Emergency Management, had the Veterans School on standby to operate as a shelter in the case of power outages, but it wasn’t needed.”We we