Travel Ban Lifted; Parking Ban Remains

New Haven ​“dodged a bullet” from Winter Storm Juno and will begin returning to normal — slowly.

That was the word in the latest update on the city’s response to the storm, held at noon at the Emergency Operations Center in the basement of the 200 Orange St. government office building.

Mother Nature spared the city the brunt of the blizzard. Originally forecasters predicted two to three feet of snow. The storm then shifted east — blanketing other parts of the state with that amount. But New Haven came away with about a foot of snow, according to emergency operations chief Rick Fontana.

So the city followed the lead of the state Tuesday and announced that a travel ban will be lifted as of 2 p.m.

However, the parking ban remains in effect until noon Thursday. That means no parking on downtown streets or other snow-emergency routes; and no parking on the odd-numbered side of any street citywide. Free parking is available at school lots and garages. (Details of the plan can be found here.) UPDATE: the ban expires for downtown streets at 6 a.m. Wednesday, remains in effect for the rest of the city.

“Don’t be the odd man out. Park on the even,” Fontana urged the public.

Metro-North resumed train service on a Sunday schedule. CT Transit is expected to have buses running again Wednesday morning.

The Harp administration put into action a storm-emergency plan drawn up over the summer based on mistakes made in previous years. And it used 2011’s Winter Storm Nemo, which dumped 34 inches on the city, as a ​“benchmark” on how to respond.

Crews were able to clear all major roads by Tuesday morning. Tuesday afternoon they got to work on side roads.

“We dodged the bullet here,” Fontana said at the noon briefing. ​“We brought our A‑plus game to the table. We will continue to do that.”

One lesson learned from the past: Send a clear message about getting cars off the road, then back it up with tagging and towing. Overnight crews tagged and towed 240 illegally parked cars, largely on the main routes. They tagged and towed another 69 cars Tuesday morning, according to city transit chief Doug Hausladen, and will continue enforcement Tuesday afternoon as plows hit the side streets.

“We came together as a community,” Mayor Toni Harp declared. She credited the public for largely observing the parking ban, for helping neighbors dig out; and public works and emergency crews for working diligently through the night.

Not everybody adhered to the parking ban. At around 10:30 a.m. several cars on Alden Avenue were clearly parked on the odd side of the street. Hausladen said if the cars are still there by the time parking enforcement and crews start tackling residential streets they’ll be tagged and towed.

City Braces For ​“Nemo 2”

A previous version of this story follows.

As the first deceptively gentle snowflakes fell on New Haven, officials put out the call for people to get their cars off the street and stay indoors as an expected blizzard sweeps the city through Tuesday.

Harp administration officials crowded the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in the basement of 200 Orange St. at 10 a.m. for the first in what will be days of sessions to cope with a storm expected to bury New Haven in 22 – 32 inches of snow and reach gusts of 40 – 60 miles per hour starting at rush hour. Update: The forecast is now for 24 – 36 inches.

The governor, meanwhile, prepared to close all state roads to traffic at 9 p.m. Monday. Update: The city too is banning travel on local roads after 9 p.m. except for emergency workers traveling to or from work.

Update: The city has announced that a parking ban goes into effect at 6 p.m. Monday and lasts through 2 p.m. Thursday. Street parking is banned downtown. In neighborhoods, people may park only on the even-numbered side of the street. People may park their cars for free during that time in public-school lots as well as at the Granite Square lot at State Street near Trumbull and Wall. People can park at the Temple Street Garage for $3 a day during the storm. (Click here to read the city’s release on the ban.) Also available: The 1,200-space Winchester Avenue parking garage run in Science Park by the Winstanley company.

New Haven Deputy Emergency Operations chief Rick Fontana told Monday morning’s EOC gathering that the city is using as its ​“benchmark” historic Winter Storm Nemo. That 2013 storm dumped 34 inches of snow on New Haven — the city’s largest snowfall since 1888.

The National Weather Service is calling the storm ​“crippling” and ​“potentially historic.”

“I take these words seriously,” Mayor Toni Harp told the dozens of department heads assembled at the EOC.

Among the plans discussed:

• The city will put in effect a parking ban, and enforce it. Downtown streets will be off-limits to parking. In other neighborhoods people may park only on the even-numbered side of the street, though it’s better not to park on the street at all. The city will make school parking lots and downtown garages available for parking. Get there today. Learning from past mistakes, the city plans to ticket and tow cars remaining on the street in defiance of the ban.

“This is where we’re going to need help from everyone” to ensure that plows can clear streets and emergency crews can save lives, Fontana said.

• Schools will close two hours early Monday. They will likely stay closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Same with the public libraries.

• Homeless shelters will stay open around the clock. A warming center will stay open at Church on the Rock on Hamilton Street from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. City outreach workers are scouring streets to urge people with nowhere else to go to head to warming centers.

• The fire department is adding 15 staffers, who will man three additional engine companies, starting Monday night. The 45 recruits at the fire academy have been put on notice that they may be called on overnight to help assist people in distress.

• The police have stocked neighborhood substations with food in case neighbors need it, as occurred in Winter Storm Nemo.

• Public works has 32 city plows ready to go along with 16 contractors’ plows. The public works and parks department have 70 staffers ready to clear streets and park throughways. Garbage collection has been suspended for Tuesday and Wednesday. Regular recreation programs will be suspended, but special snow-shoeing and ice sculpture programs are in the works.

• Anyone in distress from the storm can call the Emergency Operations Center at (203) 946‑8221. The city will also send recorded updates to the approximately 29,000 people signed up for phone alerts; sign up here for alerts. And click here to read storm-safety tips distributed by the city.

• The city is making payloaders available to fire department. ​“We learned in Nemo” that otherwise emergency vehicles may not be able to reach people, Fontana said.

• The city has asked CT Transit to try to keep buses running until 9 p.m. Monday. Bus service is expected to be shut down on Tuesday.

• United Illuminating expects up to 30,000 customers in the region to lose power. It has 50 contractors lined up and 34 reinforcements coming from Ohio to supplement the 100 workers on duty.

• The last flight is expected to leave Tweed-New Haven Airport at 3:30 p.m. Monday. Tuesday flights have been canceled.

The storm gives the Harp administration the chance to roll out the 11 new pieces of equipment (including the ​“Snogo” blower, pictured) it has bought to clear streets better. (Read about that here.) The administration has also been working since last winter to learn from its mistakes in addressing storms that occurred then. (Read about that here.)

One of those mistakes: Not sending a clear message to people to move their cars from the street, and then not towing them promptly if they failed to do so. The previous DeStefano administration made the same mistake in back-to-back 2011 storms that left many streets impassable — and unplowable.