Governor Alexander Beglov held an emergency meeting with members of the government of St. Petersburg and the city improvement headquarters, at which he received reports on the work of all services to eliminate the consequences of the cyclone that covered the city last night. “We have exceptional weather conditions. A cyclone reached St. Petersburg, which the day before caused a lot of trouble in Crimea and the Krasnodar Territory. Another one is coming next, but I am sure that we will also cope with this situation,” the governor noted.
Over the past 24 hours, the height of the snow cover has reached 15.5 cm. All services are working in intensive mode; 8,000 cubic meters of snow were removed overnight.
At night, 30 flights were delayed, 11 in the morning, 19 were sent to an alternate airfield. But Pulkovo airport is operating as normal.
As Alexander Beglov reported, now about 13,300 roofs of houses in the city need to be cleared of snow. Currently, the municipal services staff includes 550 roofers; an additional 1,987 may be hired. The head of the city has instructed to synchronize the cleaning of roofs with the cleaning of sidewalks. The governor noted that cleaning the city is also the responsibility of all property owners. “They must clean the areas adjacent to their facilities and maintain roofs. This is now a common task,” he emphasized.
Particular attention is now being paid to the work of public transport, clearing approaches to metro stations and pedestrian crossings.
As the press service of Smolny reported, in the morning all public transport started operating without any interruptions. The ambulance service and all medical facilities are operating as normal. The head of the city gave instructions to use special road construction equipment for snow removal – at least 100 dump trucks and 30 loaders will be used today.
Alexander Beglov also suggested that entrepreneurs and company managers transfer employees whose functionality does not require mandatory presence at the workplace to remote work. He called on motorists to reduce the number of trips around the city to the necessary minimum, and even better, to switch from personal transport to public transport. This will reduce the number of cars during peak hours so as not to interfere with the work of cleaning machines. “I also ask motorists to pay special attention to parking their cars on the correct side of the street according to the schedule indicated on the road signs. This will allow us to fully clean the city at night without reducing the speed of the equipment,” the governor addressed car owners.
According to the chief weather forecaster of St. Petersburg, Alexander Kolesov, the situation remains tense. Despite the fact that the main front of the cyclone passed the night before and in the first half of the night, it will also snow today. A break is expected on November 29, and on the 30th another southern cyclone will arrive in the city.
“We expect that it will be less intense, but we still need to count on 10-15 cm of snow cover. The influence of this cyclone still remains on December 1st. Winter weather will continue in the future. The air temperature is always negative. The highest will be today – closer to 0. On other days – frostier weather, minus 3-8 degrees. There are also snowstorms, so the situation is complicated. Today the wind has almost weakened. Tomorrow is a respite from both snow and wind. On the 30th, the cyclone will also intensify, but the wind will be weaker than it was yesterday and tonight – 10-12 meters. But there will also be snowstorms. From the 2nd it should be calmer, but the temperature is already below freezing,” the forecaster said.
Source: Rosbalt
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