'Our phones are ringing': A snow plow company prepares in New York

Jan Gautam organized his snow plows overnight the way an elite coach prepares a team for a championship game.

“This is what we work for and what we train for in the summer,” said Mr. Gautam, who runs a snow plowing company in Manhattan, midway through an all-night shift from his warehouse in Queens.

New York City braced early Tuesday for what could be the heaviest snowfall in more than two years. Crews from Mr Gautam's company, Novus Maintenance, would report for work at 3am, he said.

Crews operate 10 vehicles and various snow removal equipment. Trucks work best on the relatively wide boulevards of Brooklyn and Queens; sidewalk machines are better suited to the urban canyons of Manhattan.

Mr Gautam said his regular crew, reinforced by additional staff, planned to serve about 200 regular customers in the city, including hospitals, hotels and apartment buildings, plus an onslaught of new customers.

“A lot of people tend to forget about the snow, especially now,” because this winter has been relatively mild so far, he said. “So tomorrow our phone will ring.”

A few logistical factors made preparing for the nor'easter a little more difficult than for other storms, he said. Initially, some forecasts predicted only an inch or so of snow, with precipitation expected to begin around 6 a.m. But by Monday evening, expected snowfall totals had risen to as much as eight inches, and the expected start time of the storm had been pushed back. to 4 a.m

It doesn't help that the storm starts out as rain, he said. Rain prevents snow plow crews from pre-treating roads and sidewalks with salt because rain would wash away the salt.

Mr. Gautam spoke to a reporter late Monday as he walked to his car from his warehouse in Long Island City. He planned to cross the East River to the company's headquarters in the Chrysler Building, where he would check in with his dispatchers who manage his crew.

He said he expected calls from customers to start pouring in around 8 a.m

“For us, it's a lot of preparation,” he said, “but also excitement that we finally have some snow.”