Village Officials Reflect on Blizzard, Prepare for 'the Big Melt'

Final road clean-up is underway today (Friday) in Buffalo Grove, where plows were deployed around the clock this week to remove about 20 inches of snow from village streets.

“We’re pretty much finished with the emergency operations now,” Village Manager Dane Bragg said. “We’ve lived through the third largest snowstorm in the history of Chicago.”

Today, crews will focus on removing large snow piles, clearing rights of way, and removing snow from sewers “so we don’t have any problems when the big melt begins,” Bragg said.

has received a high volume of phone calls this week from residents voicing concerns about snow removal. While there’s not much village staff could do about the snow that refilled homeowners’ driveways as streets were cleared, staff members are working to help elderly or disabled residents who are unable to clear their own snow.

Local Scout troops and everyday citizens have offered to lend a hand to residents in need of assistance. Those who are unable to address the massive amounts of snow left on their property are encouraged to call the village manager’s office at 847-459-2525, and staff will try to connect them with volunteers.

“We want to make sure if anyone is still at home and can’t get their driveway cleared out, we will try to find a way to do that,” Bragg said.

Given the enormity of the snowfall, responders reported some problems.

The reported receiving more than 60 traffic-related calls between 2 p.m. Tuesday and 2 p.m. Wednesday.

“It was particularly bad on the overnight shift, as they had 36 of the calls and they quit documenting all of the traffic-related calls after awhile,” Cmdr. Steve Husak said. “We were fortunate to have a few four-wheel-drive police vehicles and were able to borrow a few from our Public Works Department. We put two officers in each vehicle and patrolled as best we could. Even the 4x4s were getting stuck at times. Our personnel really stepped up during the storm, some adjusting their hours, coming in early, staying late, etc.”

crews also experienced a few issues, Bragg said.

“We did have one accident where a smaller truck plow backed into a vehicle that was backing out of the driveway,” he said. And, he added, “We’ve hit some mailboxes along the way.”

In addition, one plow was left with a broken blade.