Westfield Gets Most Snow in Metro Region

Westfield received the most snow of any town in the New York metropolitan region, according to a report from the National Weather Service.

Westfield received 17.5 inches of snow during the blizzard of 2010. The next town in the list was Clark which received 17 inches of snow. The weather service reports that Union Township received 16.8 inches, Cranford and Scotch Plains both clocked in at 15 inches and Fanwood received 13 inches of snow. The highest totals outside of New Jersey were the Great Kills section of Staten Island which clocked in at 17 inches and the Long Island community of Woodmere which received 16.8 inches of snow.

The Department of Public Works has been working around the clock to clear the streets. Public Works Superintendent Claude Schaffer said Thursday morning the department's 36 staffers on duty are continuing to focus on clearing the main roads in town and other roads which need additional clearing.

"We're still going, we are doing the aftermath," Schaffer said this morning. "We haven't really finished. We did a lot in the wee hours of the morning."

DPW crews reported for work at 4 a.m. on Wednesday morning and continued through the night. Schaffer said he expects the public works staffers to leave work at 4 p.m. today for a 36 hour straight workday of clearing the streets. As of this morning, the DPW had done five full sweeps of town roads.

The public works crews have taken naps and extended breaks as required under their contracts. There is a break room in the public works building on North Avenue for the crews. Schaffer said he had very little sleep since the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Schaffer said residents have been largely cooperative with DPW crews. The most complaints have been routine largely focused on residents upset with their driveways being plowed in. Schaffer said while his department tries to avoid plowing snow into residential driveways, there is no way to avoid it with the snow fall totals Westfield received.

"There are some people that are upset that we plowed in their driveways," Schaffer said. "When you get a big storm life this, there is a large volume of snow being pushed onto the curb."