City reports recovery costs

City of Pensacola Begins Tally Following
Historic Winter Storm

The City of Pensacola is making significant progress in its recovery efforts following the most significant snow storm in the history of the city.

“Most people think of emergency responders during emergency situations,” says Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves. “They, and our Public Works team were probably seen by the most people this past week. But there were hundreds of others behind the scenes to ensure we had what we needed to handle this response. I thank all of them for helping us to get where we are in such a short amount of time.”

Taking a look from when snow began falling, around noon on Tuesday, Jan. 21 to Friday morning, Jan. 24 when the majority of city roads were drivable:

The Pensacola Police Department recorded 280 calls for service to include:

Two crashes with injuries
Five crashes with no injuries
Three hit-and-runs
One crash hit by an auto.

The Pensacola Fire Department recorded 95 calls for service to include:

Three fire calls in the city
Two mutual aid fire calls
27 public assists
Six activated fire alarms
Two crashes with injuries
55 medical emergency or miscellaneous calls.

Pensacola Public Works spread more than 12 tons of sand and salt over 62 lane miles of roads. These were the 17 thoroughfares identified as “critical roadways” for our emergency responders. They also maintained two portions of Florida Department of Transportation roads. Overall, Public Works crews spent more than 90 hours of road work during this emergency. That is on top of the 91 hours the five snowplow crews from Roads, Inc. of Northwest Florida completed just Tuesday and Wednesday. Their services were obtained through an emergency contract with the city. Also of note, not a single street light in the city went down despite the icy road conditions.

Once roads were safe, Pensacola Sanitation Services resumed trash pick-up on Thursday, Jan. 24. They were able to reach close to 40% of the city during this partial shift. They have 10 garbage trucks, seven knuckle booms and one rear loader in use. They expect to collect everyone else by the end of today, Jan. 25.

Pensacola Fleet and Facilities Services assisted Sanitation Services in getting their vehicles running after sitting in the cold for four days. They also responded to numerous minor cold-related issues around city facilities.

Pensacola International Airport was open 16 hours after the snow stopped falling, becoming the first of the affected Gulf Coast airports to reopen. This was done after every available vehicle on airport property was used to break up the sheet of ice that had formed on the runway. It is an area wider than a 12-lane interstate and runs 1.3 miles. Public Works also assisted in clearing the roads in front of the airport to allow passengers better access to the terminal.

All City of Pensacola sites and services will resume normal operations on Monday, Jan. 27.

The preliminary cost of the winter storm to the City of Pensacola is estimated to be between $500,000 and $600,000. A final breakdown is expected to take a couple of weeks to calculate.

For ongoing updates and resources, visit www.cityofpensacola.com.