NEWARK — After Thursday’s snowstorm dumped up to a foot of snow in parts of the state, Mayor Ras Baraka said Newark’s main thoroughfares had been cleared and the city was prepared to continue its cleanup efforts into the night.
About 65 percent of the city’s streets had been cleaned as of 3 p.m. and crews were focusing on secondary roads, city officials said.
“The snow did not get a chance to get in front of us,” Baraka said during a press conference inside the city’s emergency operations center. “We had the equipment ready, we were prepared to start off initially.”
He said 20 trucks were working in each ward and 10 traffic accidents had been reported — far fewer than those reported during last year’s record-setting blizzard.
Baraka was criticized during last year’s storm when streets took days to clear and residents said they remained buried under two feet of snow days after the storm passed.
“This year we started off in a different place with the resources that we needed,” Baraka said, adding that the city negotiated with its vendors that provide much of the equipment ahead of time. “The lessons we learned from last year — we had to have a staging session and drill prior to this storm.”
He said the drop in temperature expected Thursday night could pose new problems but crews were ready to salt and continue clearing the roads.
Karen Yi may be reached at kyi@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @karen_yi or on Facebook.
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