Up to 17 inches fall in Princeton area
By: David Campbell
A powerful snowstorm that dumped 17 inches of the white stuff on Princeton this weekend left schools closed Monday, made driving treacherous over the weekend, and forced NJ Transit to shutter service into and out of town.
All area schools were closed Monday due to hazardous road conditions caused by the snowstorm that began early Saturday afternoon and continued into the early afternoon on Sunday. Many area roads were still rutted with snow Monday, hampering traffic flow in some areas.
The National Weather Service in Mount Holly said Princeton saw up to 17 inches of snowfall by Sunday evening. The state climatologist’s office at Rutgers University reported as much as nearly 21 inches of snow for the New Brunswick region, while some areas around Princeton received a foot to 14 inches.
At the height of the storm, snow fell at rates of 2 to 3 inches per hour, with whiteout conditions and drifts of 4 to 5 feet deep in some areas, the National Weather Service reported.
"It was a pretty good bit of snow that fell," said a meteorologist on duty Monday at the Mount Holly office.
The storm left Princeton with no mass transit for much of the day Sunday. Buses were suspended until 4 p.m., and the Dinky shuttle train was suspended all day. Buses and trains resumed normal weekday schedules Monday, NJ Transit reported. A snow emergency was declared in Princeton Township, but not in Princeton Borough.
Princeton Township Police Capt. Mark Emann said Monday that the weekend was a busy one for police, with a full complement of officers on duty over the weekend and others on call as needed.
Capt. Emann said township officers handled dozens of calls from motorists who skidded off the roadways, particularly in the late evening Saturday, when the snow was falling heavily and some motorists were still out in their vehicles. He said no serious incidents were reported, and noted that incidents of vehicles off the road outnumbered those of accidents and fender-benders.
The township police captain said Monday was relatively quiet, given that schools were closed and there was less traffic on the roads.
"It was a large volume of snow and people seemed to cope with it pretty good," he said of the weekend storm.
Tom Crochet, assistant superintendent of public works in Princeton Township, commended township crews for their efforts during the storm.
"It was a very busy weekend, and it was a long night," he said Monday. "Considering the amount of snow we got, things are shaping up."
Mr. Crochet said a public-works crew of 18 came into work at noon Saturday and worked through the storm. He said crews didn’t get off work until about 5 or 6 p.m. Sunday. Crews came in again at 5 a.m. Monday to get more salt down the roads were plowed, but hard-packed and in need of re-salting.
He said the early morning hours Sunday, between about 3 and 8 a.m., were particularly challenging for plow drivers as the snow was falling at rates of 2 inches per hour or more and accumulating quickly. He said the visibility was poor for the drivers, who were plowing in the midst of extremely heavy snowfall.
Mr. Crochet estimated that about 300 tons of salt was used in the township during the storm and after.
"I have to commend the job these guys did," he said of township crews. "They worked hard and they got the job done, working on very little sleep in poor conditions they definitely got the job done."
Princeton Borough Director of Public Works Wayne Carr said Monday that efforts in the borough went relatively smoothly considering the intensity of the storm.
He said he had a total road crew of 18 people working in rotating and overlapping shifts throughout the weekend. The first crew was in at about 10 p.m. Saturday and worked through to 8 a.m. Sunday, with the second crew coming in at 6 a.m. Sunday and working to 6 p.m., which provided some overlap, he said.
The first crew came back on duty Sunday evening, working from 8 p.m. to midnight clearing intersections and stretches of road where cars had earlier been parked.
Mr. Carr said as of Monday, borough crews put down about 60 tons of salt. He said of particular challenge to crews during the weekend snowstorm were people out driving or cross-country skiing during the storm, which he said made the plow drivers’ work more difficult.