ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester region is working to unbury after being slammed by the largest winter storm in at least eight years.

News10NBC’s crew has been out in the field all day Monday. Early Monday morning, our crews were tracking the road conditions, the snow totals, and closures. During the day Monday, our crews went out to see the aftermath of the storm and how people were handling it.

RELATED: Viewers share photos of winter storm from across the region

City plows worked diligently to keep Rochester streets clear after the storm. News10NBC spoke with Karen St. Aubin, director of Bureau Operations for the city of Rochester, about how they did.

St. Aubin said she’s proud of the work plow crews put in Sunday, saying the city was in good shape within 24 hours of the storm starting.

St. Aubin says a dedicated crew goes out determined to clear its entire route. But a good response starts with a good plan, which St. Aubin says the city starts working on in May.

Crews initially focused on main roads and then moved to neighborhoods from 7 p.m. Sunday until 2 a.m. Monday. The city used specially treated salt to combat low temperatures and employed different types of plow trucks.

“So the larger ones we have wing plows and those are better for the wider streets, but more lanes. We have loaders and they’re good for they have down pressure. So you can get you can push a lot more snow,” said St. Aubin. “We have everything from like what you saw. It’s like a larger pickup truck with a salt body on it, and that’s for those smaller streets, like in the southwest.”

Jessica, a South Wedge resident, said she uses Rochester’s PlowTrax, a web-based map that shows real-time progress of the city’s snow plows.

“The city is normally really good about plowing streets,” she said. “They finally came at 7:30 last night and then I woke up this morning and they hadn’t come.. so they came one time in a foot of snow.”

For those interested in tracking the city’s plowing efforts, the PlowTrax website updates every five minutes. You can access it by clicking here.

Other residents also expressed satisfaction with the city’s response, saying they felt like the city is doing its job keeping the roads clear.

Glenn Graver has lived in Rochester his whole life, and he says this year’s response stood out. Matt Arnold moved to Rochester in 2020. He says this is the heaviest snow he’s seen here, but he doesn’t have any complaints for the city.

On the other hand, Gianni Vazquez says the city is doing a good job, but wishes the sidewalks were cleared.

Ryan, another South Wedge resident, said he uses a contract plow service, which got stuck while trying to clear his driveway. He mentioned not seeing a city plow until Monday morning.

“They’re doing an all right job. It’s hard on these one ways you can see people buried halfway,” he said.

Residents in the Park Avenue and South Wedge neighborhoods spent Monday morning digging out their cars. Concerns about how the city handled plowing were a common topic among those shoveling snow.

St. Aubin with the city addressed the parking and plowing challenges.

“Just one car out on place – on the wrong side of the street. Can really challenge the plowing operation,” she said. “If we can’t get through we can’t plow. And it just takes on a whole problem for that neighborhood.”

While some residents felt the plows sometimes do more harm than good, others appreciated the effort.

“Sometimes they do more harm than good [the plows] – I think it was a good day to do the sidewalk plows but a lot of times they stamp it down and it ices over and makes it more difficult to clean up but they done a pretty good job today,” another resident said.

Throughout the city, people were busy shoveling sidewalks, driveways, and cars out of the snow. A student from RIT was grateful for canceled classes.

“I’m a student at RIT and luckily it was cancelled. But I know I have to do this at some point so rather sooner than later,” he said.

Winter fun at Cobbs Hill

While many spent Monday shoveling the snow, kids in the area spent the day at Cobbs Hill for some downhill fun.

“Its pretty fun because you can go fast and I think one of the best things is that being covered in snow gets you cold while you’re warm,” one kid said.

Kids even built a makeup ramp to get some air. The only negative thing, if you call it that, about sledding is the track back up the hill, but these kids didn’t care at all.

Hardware store owner explains how last year’s salt shortage prepared them for the current snowstorm

A recent snowstorm has left Rochester with more than a foot of snow, and local hardware stores are working to meet the demand for winter supplies. News10NBC visited Hadlock’s Ace Hardware in Pittsford to check on their stock.

Terry Dacey, owner of Hadlock’s Ace Hardware, said, “We’ve gotten rock salt in probably about six times so far this winter. This last load came in last week,” he said, gesturing towards the pallet of rock salt bags. “There was 100 bags of this one and 60 bags of the larger size.”

Dacey explained that the store learned from last year’s rock salt shortage and stocked up to avoid similar issues. “Based on last year with the tremendous shortage of rock salt, we have stocked up, so that we won’t be in that position again,” he said.

While the store is well-stocked on rock salt and snowblowers, they are currently low on shovels and heaters. A shipment scheduled for Monday morning was delayed due to the snowstorm, but more supplies are expected Tuesday morning.

“It always amazes me. What are they thinking when they don’t have one until it actually snows?” Dacey said, reflecting on the late-season demand for snow shovels.

Residents are advised to call their local hardware store to confirm availability of supplies before heading out.

More stories on the storm

• SEE VIDEOS: Pets enjoying time in the snow after the winter storm
• Northeast sees more snow from the tail end of a colossal winter storm, at least 25 deaths reported
• American Heart Association warns of potential heart problems caused by shoveling snow

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