OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — As Omaha sees major amounts of snow, Mayor Stothert decided to issue a snow emergency.
An emergency order has not been issued in quite some time, but because of the accumulation of the projected forecast, Stothert believed it was necessary.
"We do ask people be patient. If you remember we have about 5,000 lane miles of road in Omaha including the residential areas so with a big operation like this it takes some time," Stothert said.
The snow emergency will go into effect midnight the night of January 25. It does not have an end date yet because it is projected to snow throughout the week.
Mayor Stothert said the snow emergency is mainly to address parking. Parking restrictions allow the crews to remove the snow more easily.
The plows began moving through residential neighborhoods at about 2 p.m.
"There’s kind of a sweet spot with the contractors, you don’t want to get them in too early before there’s snow to move and then they have to move a lot of it twice. But then you don’t want to wait too long," said Todd Pftizer, City of Omaha engineer.
Pfitzer reminded everyone that shoveling snow from your residence onto city streets is illegal.
"That is illegal point blank. You should not put any of our snow from your lot back out onto the city street, so aim the auger of your snow blower away from the street and when you're doing the end of your driveway, try putting it off onto either sides of your driveway," Pfitzer said.
If you are wondering when a plow will be moving through your area you can track them in real time on the City of Omaha website.
