Suffolk City Offices will be closed on Thursday, January 4th due to the current Winter Storm Warning in effect. All scheduled activities and events are cancelled, including before and after school care and athletic practices.
Alpha Personnel for the Suffolk Police Department, and others as directed by their Supervisor, should report to duty as usual.
Suffolk Transit is also closed tomorrow. Refuse collection will be delayed due to the closure of the SPSA landfill. Based on the current weather forecast, Wednesday’s trash will be collected on Friday, Thursday’s collections on Saturday, and Friday’s collections on Monday.
City staff will clear ice and snow from priority streets as quickly as possible during this weather event. Efforts began Tuesday morning by pretreating all primary roadways with a brine solution prior to the snowfall event. The Suffolk Public Works Department is equipped with 27 trucks, a combination of chemical spreaders and snow plows, 4 trucks set-up as brine spreaders, as well as other smaller trucks and other types of construction equipment with blades that can be adapted to push snow if needed.
The Department’s first priority is to make passable approximately 600 lane-miles of primary roads and additional lane-miles of priority streets that access hospitals, fire stations and police stations. Most neighborhood streets are not cleared because parked vehicles and other safety considerations make snow removal from these streets impractical. Problematic main roadways into and out of some neighborhoods will be treated and/or plowed as Supervisors investigate if the equipment can safely work in such areas.
To report roadway issues, citizens can contact Public Works at 514-7600.
For afterhours/weekend requests for Emergency Public Utilities Services, call 757-514-7000 (broken water pipes, etc.).
A Winter Storm Warning for snow means severe winter weather conditions are expected and to plan on difficult travel conditions. The National Weather Service advises that if you must travel, keep an extra flashlight, food and water in your vehicle in case of an emergency.
Governor Terry McAuliffe declared a State of Emergency for Virginia earlier this afternoon, and City Manager Patrick Roberts declared a State of Emergency for Suffolk effective at 8:00 p.m. this evening.
The City of Suffolk uses Facebook (www.facebook.com/suffolkva), Twitter (www.twitter.com/CityofSuffolk), and Suffolk On the Alert (a free service with registration available at https://suffolk.onthealert.com) to notify our citizens and employees of any weather-related closings.
Please note that extensive helpful emergency preparedness information is available on the City’s website at http://www.suffolkva.us/607/Emergency-Management and http://www.suffolkva.us/1049/Severe-Weather-Tips-Updates including Severe Weather Tips & Updates and a link to current conditions from the Weather Underground website.