SAVANNAH, Ga (WSAV) -- Savannah Mayor Van Johnson is warning residents about the dangerous driving conditions after the winter storm.
News 3 spoke to multiple people in city neighborhoods about their experiences getting around post-storm as snow and ice covered the roadways. We saw many people across Savannah choosing to walk from point A to point B.
Linda Heintz walked to work Thursday morning.
“Yesterday, it was fantastic,” she said. “Today, it was a little trickier because of the refreeze of the snow made it a little more slick. So, I had to find virgin snow to walk on to keep from sliding.”
She continued, “Now I’m a little disappointed. I have another job that I wanted to get back to, but I guess I might have to wait a little bit longer.”
Bridges, roads closed due to ice
News 3 spoke to one neighbor who said the city needs to invest in snowplows. Johnson thinks otherwise.
“We don't have snow plows out,” he explained. “Our snow removal and ice removal strategy is sunshine. So, we have to wait until that passes.”
You may have seen snowplows on state-owned roads like Victory Drive and Bay and Abercorn streets. The Georgia Department of Transportation is taking care of those.
So, News 3 asked Johnson if the city is taking specific measures to address icy conditions in neighborhoods.
“No, no, that's the point,” he said. “We want people to stay home. We have snow once every seven, eight years.”
He added, “We have limited materials that we use for like bridges. We could put sand down, for example, but sand creates other problems for us. You put sand down and then it melts and now you have mud. And then mud nearly clogs up all our drainage.”
He went on to tell News 3 that snowplows are not a good effective use of city funds.
“Our priority should be dealing with tropical storms and hurricanes,” Johnson said.
Overall, Johnson said his team did the best they could with the resources they had.