National Guard helping remove snow in New Bedford

By Dana Griffin

dgriffin@abc6.com

@danagriffinABC6

NEW BEDFORD, MA- So far 85,000 cubic yards of snow have been hauled away by local New Bedford crews and the National Guard.

At the Department of Infrastructure, a command center is taking in calls and allocating resources around the city.

DPI Commissioner, Ron Labelle said, “It’s a massive undertaking and cause people are out and about, everybody’s driving and what we have to do is close sections of city streets down, remove the snow and move on. And we’re sort of like locus going through the city and doing this and upsetting a lot of people but we gotta get it done.”

Labelle says it’ll take weeks to get it all but for now, 5 National Guard trucks and two front end loaders from EMA are helping over one hundred plow trucks before more snow which is expected Tuesday.

Neighbors who average an hour of digging time to free their cars from the snow are relieved for the National Guard’s help.

Mayor Jon Mitchell is working to get more resources to the city. New Bedford has over-spent its snow budget for the year.

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