"Stay Off the Roads"

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With a snow emergency declared for Norwalk, Fire Chief and Emergency Management Director Denis McCarthy says the best thing for residents to do is stay off the roads entirely.

"We want to make sure everybody is off the roads before the worst of the storm arrives late Friday afternoon," he says.

A city parking ban is in place, and all public parking will be open without charge throughout the storm. 31 snow plows have been deployed to clear streets. The weekend's storm is expected to bring up to two feet of snow and winds up to 45 miles per hour. McCarthy says power loss is possible.

"We've been in touch with Connecticut Light Power (CLP) and South Norwalk Electric (SNEW)," he says. "We have ongoing close relationships with them and the Third Taxing District so that if there is any power outage due to high winds, we have a rapid response."

The city has also issued a flood warning along the coast. McCarthy says the city's worst case scenario is if the snow impedes crew from handling an emergency situation. But he doesn't expect that to happen.

He says the city has snowmobiles available to get to areas a normal response team could not get to, like cars trapped underneath snow.

"We haven't had to use them, but we'll make sure they're available if we need them," McCarthy says.

The customer service line will be open all day Saturday at 854-3200. McCarthy says as long as the storm subsides sometime Saturday, he expects most of cleanup to take place sunday, with all roads being cleared ub time for monday morning's commute.