The complaints are not unusual, but they're desperate. Watch video
EDISON — About 60 hours after the snow began, and more than 36 hours after it stopped, Vikrant Advani finally took matters into his own hands.
With a lot of Advil and some hard work with a shovel, Advani finally dug himself out of his Georgean Court cul de sac home on Monday afternoon, which was only half-plowed. At around 3 p.m. Monday, a Department of Public Works plow came by, got stuck, and left, Advani said.
"I'm so over it," Advani said.
Advani is one of several people in Edison unhappy with the pace of snow removal in the state's fifth-largest town, with complaints also coming from Hilltop Road, Pavlocak Court and other neighborhoods in North Edison. But after a storm that dropped an average of more than an inch an hour over 24 hours, Edison is far from the only town receiving a hailstorm of civic grousing about unplowed side streets.
Queens. South Plainfield. Piscataway. Woodbridge. Newark is particularly bad, and kids won't have school for the second day in a row. The NJ.com Facebook page and an article online briefly turned into an ersatz scream-therapy session of irate, snowbound New Jerseyans, including some from Edison.
"Call several times yesterday to a voice mail box that is full," Sweta Agarwal wrote. "Someone needs get the plows here and clean the snow!!!!!"
This is life in the time of Snowzilla, a massive storm that dumped a historic amount of snow on the Garden State.
Vikrant Advani sent this picture Sunday night of the unplowed street in front of his house. In Edison, town officials are defending their response to the storm, saying they were able to accomplish a great deal in challenging circumstances.
"Edison's response to Saturday's mega-snowstorm was actually amazing. Our public works crews worked 22 straight hours, braving treacherous roads, often in a blinding, wind-driven snow that cut visibility to less than 12 feet in front of their trucks," said business administrator Maureen Ruane, who is the acting director of the DPW — since the previous director retired months ago.
Ruane said the town has 300 linear miles of streets, so the town had to prioritize: heavily-traveled streets first, and then neighborhood streets, and then side-streets and culs-de-sac.
"Right now, we are grappling with the question of where to put all the snow," Ruane said in an email. "Huge piles of snow can be obstructions for motorists, especially near intersections."
The town has replaced most of its vehicles and equipment that got lost in a January 2015 fire; it has 59 heavy-duty trucks with plows, and some with salt spreaders. Three of them had to go out for repairs Sunday.
Over the weekend, the situation in Edison was so grim that the town had to bring in National Guard troops from East Orange to help shuttle people to the hospital.
NJ Advance Media's article about the National Guard response was met by several emails, like Advani's, and others that were anonymous — "or we may not be plowed out until spring" — asking why the cavalry didn't show up there, too.
Many comments on NJ.com's story seeking plow troubles came from Edison residents, but one was forbearing.
"This was an unusual storm and I think we all need to be a little less critical of the situation," the South Edison resident wrote. "Hopefully, mother nature with give us some help today."
Residents have also said that the DPW and mayor's voicemails are full and can't accept new messages. The town said anyone can report snow- or road-related problems to the DPW at (732) 248-7288.
Brian Amaral may be reached at bamaral@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bamaral44. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
