This storm dropped 34 inches in New Haven in a 24 hour period. To put this in perspective, that is more snow than fell during the Blizzard of 1978. Remember that crazy winter two years ago that brought us large storms on pretty much a weekly basis? 51 inches of snow fell in the New Haven area in January 2011. 34 inches of snow is almost 70% of what fell in January 2011. Except this fell in 24 hours.

Such a significant amount of snow fell in such a short time, that even the City’s plows were getting stuck. As of 2:30 am on Saturday morning, the National Guard joined New Haven's storm clean up efforts and even one of their Humvees got stuck. We have to use payloaders to clear the streets enough that the plows can get by.

The priority areas to be cleared first are the streets ...