Sioux City snow plow clearing snow from S. Fairmount St., a designated priority street.SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KTIV) -
All that snow on the ground means someone has to move it.
Unless it's your own sidewalk or driveway, that job falls on the plow driver.
And Sioux City has about 60 of them clearing the way.
Rod Mathiason is a snow plow driver, and he's expected to spend a lot of time in his truck today. He began his 12-hour shift loading up salt and sand ready to start clearing city streets.
His focus on Friday removing snow on Floyd Boulevard from the riverfront to where it meets Highway 75 in Leeds. It's one of the priority streets that gets attention first.
"Usually we jump on it right away and we do have the plows down when we know we're gonna get a large amount like this," Rod Mathiason a snow plow truck driver with the city said.
The job isn't without challenges.
"Seems like it's icy underneath, seems like when it first started snowing it melted a little bit, then it refroze, so it's slick. It keeps us hopping pretty good, gotta keep focused and concentrate the whole time to make sure you don't make a mistake and get in an accident," Mathiason said.
Mathiason says other drivers on the road can help make it easier for workers like him. The number one rule - don't crowd the plow. He says it's important for cars around them to drive slower and give them plenty of space.
"We're still driving on the ice and stuff, I think a lot of people think that just because we're dropping salt that it's just as easy for us to drive around when it's not necessarily the case," Mathiason said.
Mathiason and the rest of the city team will be out on the streets for as long as it takes.
"Snowfall like this it'll probably be 2 days for us on the day crew, -- the night crew, depending on when the snow fall ends," Mathiason said.
