City snow plows working 24 hours a day

City plow crews met their match Monday as feet of snow piled up in Whitefish.

Crews first hit the streets Sunday night to clear downtown and emergency routes. By morning they shifted their focus to the side streets, but couldn’t keep up with the rate of falling snow.

As many as seven plows were going at once Monday, but side streets became nearly impassable by noon.

“We’ll just keep hitting it with long shifts until we get caught up,” Public Works director John Wilson said Monday afternoon. “We’ve got every man on it we can.”

Wilson said the city was planning to contract with a few private plowing crews to help out.

“We’ll get it done a little quicker, but even on Tuesday we probably won’t get to all streets,” he said.

Snow plow priorities in the city are emergency routes first and downtown at night when vehicles are gone.

Residential streets running east-west are plowed prior to noon the day of the snow storm and streets running north-south are plowed after noon. Residents are asked to move vehicles off the street during the designated plow times.

Flathead County snow plows also were out in full force Monday and Tuesday.

“We’re bordering on a paralyzing snow event,” said county Public Works director Dave Prunty.

“It’ll take a week to get caught up, and the forecast doesn’t look good. If the wind hits, it could be paralyzing for a few days.”