North Shore digs out

LYNN – The year’s first major snowstorm nailed Lynn and the region with a triple punch Thursday and Friday, combining heavy snowfall with subzero temperatures and high tides that forced noontime road closures.The National Weather Service listed Lynn’s snow total online Friday at 15 inches and an army of more than 200 city trucks and contracted vehicles started plowing at 6:30 p.m. Thursday and continued into Friday evening with road salting.City Acting Interim Public Works Commissioner J.T. Gaucher praised local residents for – by and large – heeding an on-street parking ban imposed Thursday afternoon that Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy lifted at 2 p.m. on Friday.”The city seems to be in really good shape considering the amount of snow that fell,” Kennedy stated in a Friday afternoon text message.Kennedy’s statement proved true on Union Street, where a majority of local businesses stayed open and accessible with cleared sidewalks that many walked along, despite the freezing temperatures and snow. The loud Latin music and warmth of the ovens at Mi Guatemala Bakery was a stark contrast to the harsh weather outside, and Pho Minh Ky was serving their hot bowls of soup as they do every day.As of 1 a.m. Friday, Gaucher said city parking officials reported 110 vehicles towed to a temporary city lot on Centre Street, but Gaucher said most residents found off-street parking so that plows could make clear runs down local roadways.”We thank everyone for moving their cars off the street,” he said.Police Lt. Richard Donnelly said the tow lot will remain open through the weekend to allow drivers to pick up towed vehicles. Drivers must bring identification – ideally, a driver’s license – and $160 cash to get their vehicle released.Gaucher urged drivers to exercise caution on local roads through the weekend. Today’s freezing temperatures will make it more difficult, he said, for roads treated with salt and calcium to eat away at snow packed onto road surfaces.He also asked residents to avoid shoveling or blowing snow onto local streets. Residents who dump snow into streets or fail to shovel sidewalks during the weekend face city fines.Lucia Justo spent a freezing Friday morning shoveling out the driveway next to her Lawton Avenue three-family home. Justo lives in the building with eight tenants and the burdens of being a landlord weigh heavy during a snowstorm.”You name it, it’s tough. I work 70 hours a week and, after shoveling, by the time I go to work, I’m tired,” she said.Nelsida Hidalgo and Gonzalo Jimenez trooped up Beacon Hill Avenue with shovels on a mission to solicit snow clearing work from neighbors, including seniors in need of someone to shovel. The pair said they typically earn $30 a day shoveling.City officials urged residents to shovel out fire hydrants and catch basins to avoid street flooding once temperatures climb late Sunday and on Monday. Firefighters Pat Crowley and Mark Lacaillade shoveled out Lewis Street hydrants Friday morning along with Fire Lt. Richard Denham.The Saugus River and the ocean along Lynn Shore Drive and Revere Beach presented flooding challenges for public works and emergency workers during the noontime high tide. Nahant officials closed the Nahant Causeway and Revere police blocked off Revere Beach Boulevard at Revere Street to Point of Pines at noon.Revere resident Michael Hanlon and friends Wally Williams and Jimmy Bosco stood on a beach barrier bordering Rice Avenue Friday and watched the surf surge onto the beach a few feet away from where they stood.The trio said Friday’s storm did not slam Point of Pines with the wind and flooding that marked past storms, especially the legendary Blizzard of ?78 when Hanlon recalled ocean water pouring through the neighborhood all the way to the Point of Pines fire station and carrying cars along with it.”Every house was its own island,” he recalled.George Terchiak moved to the Pines in 1995 and said he worries about an ocean surge every time a major storm hits