Cleanup underway after winter storm dropped a total of nine inches of snow in Milwaukee



MILWAUKEE -- Plows were out all night, working to clear the several inches of heavy, wet snow that fell with this winter storm. Roads were snow covered in southeast Wisconsin on Monday, December 28th -- making for slick conditions as a winter storm dropped snow, sleet and freezing rain.

A Winter Storm Warning took effect on Monday morning, and lasted until 6:00 a.m. Tuesday, December 29th for all of southeastern Wisconsin.

There were LOTS of crashes and disabled vehicles between Monday, December 28th and Tuesday, December 29th as a winter storm brought snow, sleet, freezing rain and high winds to southeastern Wisconsin.

Milwaukee County Sheriff’s officials said between 9:00 a.m. Monday and 9:00 a.m. Tuesday, deputies responded to 65 crashes involving property damage, four crashes involving injury, and 169 disabled vehicles.

City of Milwaukee DPW officials said on Tuesday that salting started at 6:00 a.m. Monday, with some trucks dropping plows at 9:00 a.m. Other trucks dropped plows between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. Monday.

On Monday, FOX6 News told you that while the DPW had 96 salt trucks out on the roads beginning overnight and into Monday morning, plowing did not begin until 2:00 p.m.

Milwaukee County's Highway Division began plowing at 10:00 a.m. Monday.

According to the National Weather Service, General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee observed 9 inches of snowfall on Monday, December 28th. This set the record for December 28th. The old record was 5.5 inches, set in 2007. In addition, 0.90 inches of liquid equivalent precipitation fell, which set the record for December 28th. The old record was 0.67 inches, set in 1968.



It was a heavy, wet snow that fell in Monday -- a chore to shovel, and hard on snow blowers.

Snow blower repair shops were busy on Tuesday making repairs. At Gielow's Lawn & Garden Equipment in Milwaukee, the phone was ringing off the hook.

Snow blower repairs



Officials there said with this heavy, wet snow, people were trying to clear it too quickly -- and that's when the snow blower can break.

"When you force through that kind of snow and go too fast, you end up breaking belts and doing more and more damage to equipment and I've got a stack of tickets of equipment to pick up that people who couldn't get it in today or tomorrow. We are going to be stacked up and running trucks for the rest of this week and into next week," Michael Gielow said.

The other big problem folks at Gielow's were seeing Tuesday was bad fuel in snow blowers from sitting too long before winter. When that happens, the machine has to be brought in and cleaned out.

Snow blower repairs