Revere Recovers Well After First Major Snowstorm of 2022

After receiving close to two feet of snow during a blizzard that began late Friday night and continued through Saturday, the City of Revere has recovered well, and life was returning to normal following the DPW’s around-the-clock snow removal efforts.

Donny Ciaramella, Revere’s chief of infrastructure and engineering, said the city’s four days of ad-vance preparation for the storm resulted in no ma-jor incidents regarding flooding.

“For example, we had accumulated 900 tons of salt for our sanders at the DPW site, and 250 tons at our off-site, so we didn’t have a traffic jam inside the DPW Yard,” said Ciaramella.

With weather forecasters predicting the Nor’easter days in advance (and to their credit, they were ac-curate), Ciaramella said storm preparations began last Tuesday and continued through Friday even-ing.

“On Friday, we coordinated efforts with the DCR to shut the floodgates on Winthrop Parkway,” related Ciaramella. “Exactly at midnight, those gates were shut in preparation of the tidal surges that we were getting. There were some astronomical high tides, and the tidal surges ranged from four to five feet. So on a high tide of 10 feet, you have to add that four-to-five-foot surge, and anything over 12-13 feet causes flooding.

“But to my knowledge, we had no flooding because of those gates being shut,” said Ciaramella.

He added that the amount of snow, duration of the storm (that produced two inches of snow per hour various points), and wind conditions created “a real challenge” for the DPW crews.

“We had to stop every 5-10 minutes to clear the windshields of the truck,” related Ciaramella. “Not only was there whiteout conditions, there was ice that developed on the windshields that made the driving extremely difficult.

“But what also made the plowing and snow re-moval very difficult is the fact that people were not staying off the road,” said Ciaramella. “They did not adhere to Gov. Baker’s request to stay home. We found many people trying to leave their homes with two-wheel-drive vehicles. We encountered several vehicles being stuck in the snow.”

Sunday at 6 a.m., DPW crews returned to Win-throp Parkway with front-end loaders to remove all the snow that had accumulated in front of the floodgates on Winthrop Parkway and to reopen the gates.

Ciaramella, who was in communication with Mayor Brian Arrigo throughout the storm, was proud of his department’s efforts. “I’ve received no calls about flooding issues, which is a tremendous achievement for the City of Revere,” concluded Ciaramella, noting that the city’s 30 pumping sta-tions, 13 sanitary sewer stations, and 17 storm-water stations, were all prepped and ready for the storm. “I think we did a good job.”