New Bedford works to clean up after winter blast
By Bianca Buono
@BBuonoABC6
New Bedford is one of the cities hit the hardest locally by the weekend storm On Sunday, more than one hundred shovelers and plow truck drivers worked to clean up what the blast left behind.
"You couldn’t even see from here to those lights you couldn’t see that,” said Jonathan Silva, a shoveler in the area.
"It happened so quick. Literally he had to shovel four times because it was like three inches an hour,” said Darien Bourgault of New Bedford.
Hundreds of those shovelers were still cleaning the streets on Sunday, many of whom hadn’t gone to bed since the storm started.
"My back hurts, my legs are sore. When I’m done here I’m just going to go home and relax,” said Michael Cipolli.
"I started at 8 last night. Finished at 5,” Silva said.
"Super tired. I can’t wait to go and take a nap,” said Roberto Torres.
One crew ABC6 spoke to had been at it since 6 p.m. Saturday and they said they still have several houses to go. They said the consistency of the snow is slowing them down.
"There’s water on the bottom and snow on top and that’s real hard to shovel,” Torres said.
But another shoveler said the storm landing on a weekend has given them an edge.
"If it was during the week where the businesses are open we do have to start early. Today we got lucky because it is Sunday so we got to start a little later,” said Silva.
Despite the snow now coating the entire city, drivers are happy the storm is over.
"It’s going to take a long time for them to completely clean it up but I’m glad that they did the side streets this year,” Bourgault said.
The City of New Bedford has ramped up their cleanup efforts this year by adding new equipment and treating the icy streets with magnesium chloride.
© WLNE-TV 2016
