JACKSON, Mich — People in mid-Michigan are trying to dig themselves out of a snowstorm that walloped much of the country.
“Yeah, it’s all hands-on deck right now," said Jackson public information officer Aaron Dimick. "We have everyone in our DPW working on snow removal and our crews have been at it since 4:30 this morning.”
According to the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids, the Lansing area got about 6 inches of snow overnight, while both Jackson and Hillsdale counties received between 7 to 8 inches. The highest total reported so far was near Parma at 8.5 inches of snow.
The Michigan Department of Transportation has close to 20 trucks deployed in Lansing to salt roadways across the city.
Michigan State Police are urging drivers to use caution, remove ice and snow from headlights, windows and license plates before driving and to make sure to give snow plows room to clear the streets.
Michigan State Police Jackson post 1st Lt. Kevin Rod said, "you know we had a few slide offs and a few minor traffic crashes but I think for the most part folks had hunkered down and we didn't see a significant amount of traffic out there because there certainly weren't a large number of incidents from last night into this morning."
Rod believes that the timing of the snow may have made things better for the public.
"Being on a Monday which was a holiday for a number of folks," Rod said. "I think information had gone out ahead of time on the amount of snow that we were supposed to get and so, I think folks took that to heart and hunkered down, and stayed home, and stayed off the roads."
In Lansing, recycling and tract collection is delayed by a day due to the weather.
The National Weather Service reports that another smaller snowfall may hit the area on Thursday.
“The process that we do here in Jackson is that we hit the major roads where there is the heavy traffic like the state roads so people can go to school, get to work, businesses can open," said Dimick. "Then we do the side neighborhood streets. Right around this morning we started to see a lot of those neighborhood streets get cleared.”
City officials say it will take until around 8 p.m. to get all streets cleared.
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