Philadelphia Lifts Snow Emergency

PHILADELPHIA – Philadelphia officials lifted the Snow Emergency status put at 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 4 and that means a few things for residents to be aware of.

As of 8 p.m., parking will be permitted on the city's Snow Emergency Routes.

Residents whose cars were towed from a snow emergency route, call (215) 686-7669 to find it. Residents are not to call 911 if their cars have been towed.

See the city's snow emergency routes here.

Normal parking enforcement, including meter and time limits as well as traffic safety violations, will begin at 6 a.m. Friday.

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Drivers who parked in the Center City PPA parking garages before 8 p.m. Thursday can still get the special rate $5 as long as they leave the garage by 10 a.m. Friday. Anyone parking in the garages after 8 p.m. Thursday will be charged standard rates.

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Officials said sanitation collections will pick back up on Friday, but residents should expect delays.

Due to the New Year’s holiday, collections were already one day behind this week. Therefore, Wednesday's materials will be picked up on Friday and Friday’s materials picked up on Saturday.

Residents who normally have their materials collected on Thursdays are asked to hold trash and recycling until next Thursday, Jan. 11.

There will be no collections in driveways for the remainder of the week. Residents should place materials at curbside in front of their homes to be picked up.

All City of Philadelphia government offices and Parks and Recreation facilities will be closed Friday, as well.

"The decision to close is a difficult one, but we believe that the frigid temperatures will result in icy roadways in the morning that will be resistant to our salting efforts," Philadelphia's Managing Director Mike DiBerardinis said. "We need to keep drivers off the roads. So we have decided to close all municipal offices. Non-essential city employees should stay home and stay warm."

The Streets Department – working in coordination with Parks and Recreation, L&I, Water, and CLIP departments – will continue its snow response until road conditions sufficiently improve.

Crews are working to reopen streets to get detoured buses back in service as soon as possible.

Crews started salting roads at 3 a.m. Thursday and began plowing at 9 a.m.

Nearly 8,000 tons of salt has been used as part of the response to Thursday's storm.

Black ice on the roadway continues to plague drivers. Motorists should allow extra time, show patience and maintain safe driving distances when traveling Thursday night and Friday.

While the snow emergency has been lifted, the city's Code Blue cold weather status has not and will remain effective until further notice.

Homeless outreach teams increase staffing and foot patrols throughout the city and transport homeless people directly to shelter 24 hours a day during the Code Blue status. Also, during a Code Blue, Philadelphia Police are authorized to transport homeless people to a shelter.

Citizens who see a person living on the street are urged to call Homeless Outreach at (215) 232-1984. During the call, citizens should provide the address, location, and description of the person in need.

Citizens should contact the Animal Care and Control Team Philly hotline at (267) 385-3800 if they see a dog or other pet outside during extreme cold.

Lastly, the Philadelphia Water Department’s customer contact center (215) 685-6300 is always available for any water related emergencies. Citizens are encouraged to shovel snow from the fronts of fire hydrants and storm drains on their block to allow snow melt to drain to the city sewer system.

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