By A. G. SULZBERGER
Published: January 31, 2011
. KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Government budgets around the nation, already busted by the bad economy, now have a new nemesis: Mother Nature.
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Yet another winter storm is going to heap more ice and snow across a huge section of the country this week, meaning yet another big bill, on top of a lot of other big bills, for all the towns and cities that have to dig out again.
“On a weather map, some people see snowflakes, I see dollar signs,” said R. T. Rybak, the mayor of Minneapolis, as a light snowfall brightened the white mounds lining the city streets.
Not that officials have any choice. The streets have to be cleared, of course, but often with fewer plows and less salt than in years past.
Many cities — New York among them — have already overspent their snow budgets and many more expect this storm to push them into the red. In Minneapolis, a record-setting series of snowstorms in December pushed the city over the snow-removal budget for 2010 by $3.3 million — more than the city spends on pothole repairs for the entire year.
Virg Bernero, mayor of Lansing, Mich., said that the snowstorm came at a “desperate time” for the city and that paying for snow removal would force him to make cuts elsewhere.
But, echoing the warnings of a number of mayors, he said that experience (and an uprising that forced him to make a public apology) has taught him not to skimp when it comes to plowing.
“The snow must be dealt with,” Mr. Bernero said. “The streets must be made safe.”
The expected damage from the storm is likely to take days to determine, but it was poised to deliver to the center of the country an unusually treacherous mix of snow, sleet, ice and high winds, inspiring forecasters to escalate the disaster rhetoric to an audience famously inured to extreme weather.
The cities bracing for the biggest impact include Milwaukee, St. Louis and Chicago, where the National Weather Service predicted more than 18 inches of snow, which would be the most for one storm in at least a decade. It also warned of potentially deadly conditions.
There were warnings for much of the Midwest, too, that high winds could lower visibility so much that plows could not operate, forcing roads to be closed.
“When you hear the word historic come up, you’re a little more concerned,” said R. Mark DeVries, maintenance superintendent with McHenry County Department of Transportation, northwest of Chicago.
“Certainly we haven’t had a storm with this potential in many, many years,” Mr. DeVries said. “But regardless of whether it reaches historic proportions or not, we expect it will be very difficult to work through.”
The Weather Service issued winter storm warnings for 19 states, from New Mexico to Vermont, and blizzard warnings for six Midwestern states, including Missouri where there were predictions of as much as an inch of ice accumulation around St. Louis.
The governors of several states declared emergencies related to the storm. And schools, businesses and government offices throughout the region were closed in advance.
The snow was not expected to start falling across much of the Midwest until Monday night, said Suzanne Fortin, a meteorologist for the Weather Service in Missouri. The storm was expected to strengthen through Tuesday and begin moving east on Wednesday, possibly lasting until Friday, she said.
“It is a really significant storm,” Ms. Fortin said. “It’s going to be something that a lot of people remember.”
Crews started working in earnest on Monday to get ahead of the mess, and in many cases they were hampered by fewer resources at their disposal. The city of Milwaukee, for example, has significantly cut back on the amount of salt bought.
Public works departments around the nation have been among the hardest hit by budget cuts, with 60 percent of cities and 68 percent of counties reporting reductions — far more than those that reported cutting social services, parks or libraries, according to a survey taken last summer by the National League of Cities.
But a number of city leaders said that they would have to find financing for snow removal — which in Kansas City costs about $150,000 an inch — even if it meant moving money from other worthwhile projects.
“It doesn’t make too much difference what’s in the budget,” said Richard L. Hanneman, former president of the Salt Institute, a trade association.
“If the citizens want the roads cleared, politicians will find a way to clear the roads,” Mr. Hanneman said. “And if they go over budget, they will figure out how to let the grass grow longer or the potholes grow deeper to find the money somehow.”
Emma Graves Fitzsimmons contributed reporting from Chicago.
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