Nutter: City workers readying for "Storm 2"

Just like Dr. Seuss' Thing 1 and Thing 2, Philadelphia's "Storm 1 and Storm 2" - as Mayor Nutter is calling the wintry weather of yesterday and tomorrow - are proving rather troublesome.

"The challenge here again is the ice, rain, snow and the refreezing process," Nutter said. "You get ice that binds to the asphalt even when the new snow is on top of it. You can plow the snow, it doesn't work as well with ice once it literally binds to the asphalt. That is a challenge not only here but everywere else."

Streets Department workers, Nutter said, finished the job on Storm 1 at noon today - but they'll be back at it again for Storm 2 at midnight, when a "full deployment" of 160 vehicles will canvass Philadelphia.

Storm 2, Nutter said, is expected to begin tomorrow around 7-9 a.m. and wrap up around 6-8 p.m. - perfectly and inconveniently coinciding with the morning and evening rush hours. Nutter cautioned that the forecast is evolving.

The mayor asked that residents clear a three-foot walkway outside their homes within six hours after precipitation has ended - and that they not dump their shoveled snow onto the streets in "classic Philadelphia style."

Hopefully all of that preparation will make it easier to clean up the Storms' mess than the one created by the Things: "And this mess is so big / And so deep and so tall / We cannot pick it up. / There is no way at all!"