Snow plow operators in Sarnia were busy working through the night to clear the latest snowfall.
A Texas low dumped about 20 centimetres of snow across the region Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, cancelling school buses and making for messy driving conditions.
The City of Sarnia also declared a significant weather event Wednesday afternoon, which meant snow removal would be prioritized on designated primary routes to ensure the delivery of transit and access for emergency services. Secondary routes will be cleared afterwards.
General Manager of Engineering and Operations David Jackson said they were hoping to wrap up the primary roads by Thursday afternoon and begin tackling side-streets.
"Everything has gone well, we had the full fleet deployed all night and we brought in our contractor support just with this amount of snow," said Jackson. "Everything has been going smoothly, it's the first big snowfall we've had in a while and so it will take us a little bit of time to get it cleared up but everything is going well so far."
Sarnia operates a fleet of 17 plows, five sidewalk plows, and four parking lot plows, in addition to utilizing the support of snow-removal contractors as needed.
Homeowners are also reminded to avoid parking on city streets while snow removal operations are underway.
"It makes it so much easier for plow operators, both just safer for them and then they can do a better job at clearing the road," said Jackson. "And just giving them lots of space whether you're behind them or on some of the wider roads, just lots of space. Hard to operate those around the city, they're big vehicles and so just to help everyone be safe."
Crews won't get much of a break from snow clearing once they're finished. More snow is expected on Saturday.
For more information on snow removal processes visit www.sarnia.ca/SnowRemoval.