Frustration has been mounting over the snow and ice covering streets, sidewalks and neighborhoods around the D.C. region. Residents of Prince George鈥檚 County, Maryland, say it鈥檚 particularly bad there, and their complaints are being heard by county leaders.
For the last two days, county leaders have been going airborne to get a bird鈥檚-eye view of the situation by riding in a county police helicopter 500 feet in the air.
鈥淚 started taking notes from the very beginning,鈥� said Melvin Powell, deputy chief administrative officer for public safety in Prince George鈥檚 County, while he was somewhere over the Fort Washington and Clinton area of the county. 鈥淗aving an aerial perspective does a lot, and it helps out with dealing with some of the roadways that may not be visible.鈥�
On Wednesday afternoon, County Executive Aisha Braveboy made a promise to residents, who said they still couldn’t get out of their neighborhoods, that their streets would be passable by midnight on Thursday.
鈥淣ow, when I say substantially passable, that doesn’t mean that your streets will be clear to the pavement. I want that to be clear,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t means that a plow or heavy equipment has passed through at least once, one travel lane is accessible and the road can be traveled with reasonable care. So you may see some snow, but it is passable, meaning a normal car can drive on it.鈥�
From up high, most of the residential roads appeared to meet that criteria, though Powell conceded things weren鈥檛 perfect and some were going to need more attention from the county.
鈥淭here鈥檚 some roadways that can use an additional plowing 鈥� to have the trucks come out and do some additional work,鈥� Powell said.
On Wednesday, Braveboy deployed what she called a “strike force” to blitz the areas that are still blocked with snow, with a special focus on cul-de-sacs and some of the more narrow roads the county maintains. In some cases, residents made it difficult for plows to get through.
鈥淲e’ve seen on many streets, folks are parking on both sides of the street. That makes it very difficult for trucks to go down,鈥� Braveboy said.
She鈥檚 asking cars be parked on the even side of streets so plows can access them.
Braveboy mostly cast blame on 鈥�2 to 4 inches of compacted ice鈥� for hindering response efforts, and said the same complaints in Prince George鈥檚 County mirror those in other parts of the region. She also said the larger size of the county means there are more roads to plow.
鈥淣ow it’s really about execution, and it’s about continuing to add assets where we can, and just listening to the residents, making sure that we’re hitting those streets and those side streets,鈥� she said. 鈥淟etting residents know when we can’t hit their streets because there’s too many cars parked in some areas, not in all, but in some areas on those cul-de-sacs, which makes it very difficult.”
Another complaint 海角社区app has been hearing is about the snowplow tracker available to county residents to monitor progress. Those who live in Fort Washington say their neighborhoods are listed as having seen a plow recently, but they say that鈥檚 not the case.
County leaders insist that hasn鈥檛 happened.
鈥淪omething did probably happen,鈥� Braveboy said, referring to the arrival of a plow. 鈥淎nd it’s not that they’re not going to go back through your area.鈥�
But when you see your street listed in the tracker as having gotten attention, 鈥渋t just shows that there was some progress made there, and then they’ll come back to complete it,” she added.
鈥淭he plows do go through the routes, and they will go through multiple times in a snow operation,鈥� Department of Public Works and Transportation Director Michael Johnson added. 鈥淪o when someone looks out the window and they say, ‘Well, listen, my street hasn’t been serviced.’ That’s not always the case. That’s not necessarily what has happened.”
He conceded there are variables, such as too many cars parked on the roads, that could make it so a plow arrived but couldn鈥檛 do any work.
From the air, the county was able to pinpoint where crews would need to return.
鈥淚t gave us a different perspective,鈥� Powell said once the helicopter had landed in College Park. 鈥淏eing up in an aircraft where you can see everything from a wide-angle. 鈥� What I can see is we haven鈥檛 gotten it perfect. Everything is not a perfect set of circumstances. But I鈥檇 say, in my opinion, 90% of what we saw were actually cleared roadways.鈥�
He said what wasn鈥檛 cleared still looked compacted and treated.
鈥淲e鈥檒l circle back to make sure that those plow trucks get to those streets that have already been done, two or three times,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e are not going to stop until we get through everybody鈥檚 neighborhood. Obviously, there鈥檚 a lot. There鈥檚 a lot to do. We鈥檙e not going to quit until it鈥檚 all done.鈥�
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