City crews working hard to get snow cleared from Estevan

City crews are hard at work clearing out snow from city streets after a storm over the weekend left more than a foot of snow.

With the wind picking up, a lot of drifts also formed around the city multiple feet tall, making the streets unnavigable.

Workers using heavy machinery were out on the streets not long after the first flakes were dropping and they likely have a good bit of work ahead.

Roads and Drainage Manager Norm Mack lays out just how many hours they've been working.

"Saturday, we had our crews out early that morning during the snowstorm, and the day was sort of a wash, we were just keeping the roads open - they were blowing in faster than we could open. We managed to get ahead of it and we worked yesterday, a long day and we're probably at about 80% of the city being grated."

They'll be working on those city streets to get them cleared today, with Mack hoping that people could help things move quickly.

"If your street hasn't been grated, expect the grate today. So if you have a parked car and you can get it off onto a driveway or onto a side street that has been done that would be appreciated. Our snow removal equipment, our trucks, and blowers will be going all this week."

The storm did provide a unique challenge for the crews, having blown in from the east rather than from the northwest as is more common.

As well, new changes to priorities for street clearing could have posed a problem, but Mack says that crews were dispatched well as they dealt with the snow.

"The priorities, they're still 1, 2, and 3. Mind you, every storm is different, and this wind came from the east this time. A lot of the time your priorities do change, it's a flowing job. With the wind direction, sometimes your priorities might not be a 1, it might be an outlying area or a residential area that's completely blown in. Sometimes just the wind affects the priorities, but for the most part, we stick to priorities 1, 2, and 3."