CAMBRIA HEIGHTS, Queens — After a storm of the magnitude the New York area faced Monday and Tuesday, digging out will take not only some strength and heavy equipment, but some skill as well.
Many homeowners in Queens were at it all day, but some were frustrated to see people shoveling and putting the snow right back into the street.
It’s counterproductive to Department of Sanitation plow truck driver Phillip Covington. It only makes his job harder.
“If you want a piece of advice: don’t throw it back on the street, put it on the side,” he said.
A 20-year veteran of the department, Covington knows a thing or two about clearing snow, even when it’s more than a foot.
“Just throw it on a mound, like a pile or a mound of snow,” Covington said.
Covington’s seen it all but there’s still something different about this storm.
“This is like a nuisance type of storm because it snowed and then it stopped for a minute and then it wants to rain,” Covington said.
Driving through Queens, for the most part PIX11 found blacktop, but Sanitation Commissioner Edward Grayson admitted plow trucks were still trying to make it to all residential streets
“Were out there through the night, out all day today,” he said. “We will readdress those residential streets. You will see blacktop today.”
Still, it’s a far cry from what PIX11 found during December’s big storm. It took days for some Jamaica residents to pull their cars out with streets completed covered. With the roads being better, the focus is more on sidewalks.
For more info on when your street was last plowed, click here. If you still need your street plowed, you can always call 311.
