Maintenance crews in Bethlehem said freezing temperatures and no break between storms have resulted in many storm drains or basins covered in snow and ice, which can be a problem once we get a major thaw.
"When we're pushing curb to curb, inevitably the basins are on the curb, and that's where we're pushing the snow, and there's thousands of them and it would be impossible to clear them all,” said Brian Spadaccia, maintenance worker for the city.
"Obviously, the water can't get in there as expeditiously as we would want it to, and we'd have to go out on a pretty consistent effort to try to clear those basins with our resources," said Mike Alkhal, director of public works.
Sheila Miller, who lives on Seventh Avenue, said she was out for at least 45 minutes on Wednesday just trying to make a place for the melting snow to drain.
"It is a little frozen over, so I'm a little worried about that if we're going to have continued cold weather. We might start having blockages, and it's just a mess," she said.
Alkhal said crews will work on clearing the basins in between storms but added any help from residents would be greatly appreciated to avoid possible flooding.
"As long as they do it safely and away from traffic, but if they can clear basins in front of their homes, that's a tremendous help to the city, and of course, it helps them out in case we don't get to it in time and they get flooded. It would avoid that situation," he said.
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