By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET — School was cancelled, a parking ban was put into effect and the plows and sanders were readied in preparation for the first major snowstorm of the season Friday.

Jack Carney, the city’s director of Public Works, said his department had been in full gear all day Thursday, since the intensity of the snowstorm was first forecast. All of the city’s trucks and other snow equipment had been tuned up and readied and the independent plowing contractors had all been contacted and briefed. “Everything is in place, and we’re ready to go,” he said, prior to the storm’s start.
Flakes began falling in Providence about 2 p.m. Friday and snow was expected to accumulate rapidly at a rate of 1 to 2 inches per hour, with winds gusting up to 45 miles an hour.
“We are right now at the height of the storm,” Gov. Don Carcieri told reporters at a late afternoon news conference. "It came fast.”
A winter storm warning remains in effect through Saturday afternoon for southern New England.
More than two dozen flights had been canceled at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick as of late afternoon.
Workers were being encouraged to stay home, as The National Weather Service said driving would become treacherous on Friday evening.
Locally, Carney said the mayor’s office had called a meeting on Thursday of officials from DPW, the police and fire departments and Emergency Management Director Robert Howe to coordinate an action plan.
He also said that highway department trucks would be out on Friday morning, spreading salt and sand on the major roadways.
Carney said the conditions being forecast seemed to echo those of the last year’s initial snowstorm of the season. In the Dec. 13, 2007 snow event, there had been considerable gridlock in Pawtucket as well as other communities, as students were dismissed early from school and droves of employees decided to leave work at around the same time.
“My sense is clearly, the volume of traffic on the highway is much, much reduced” from last last, Gov. Carcieri said.
This time, state officials had plans to get up to 560 plows on the road.
In Pawtucket, Carney said that steps were being taken to try and facilitate traffic flow on Pawtucket’s major roadways, especially on the heavily traveled Lonsdale Avenue and Mineral Spring Avenue. He said Pawtucket Police would be posted at the intersections of Lonsdale and Mineral Spring and Lonsdale and Weeden Street to keep the travel lanes open.
Late Thursday afternoon, the city had put a 1 p.m. parking ban in effect, announcing that all vehicles had to be moved from city streets to a nearby municipal or school lot. Those residents who did not comply risked getting a $100 ticket and/or having their vehicle towed, resulting in an additional $75 charge.
Harvey Goulet, city director of administration, said he had met on Friday morning with department heads from public safety and public works officials to go over details. He said the DPW workers are all equipped with two-way radios, and the police officers who work the second shift would be responding to emergency calls with the department’s four-wheel drive vehicles.
Goulet said that police would start ticketing any vehicles that were found on the streets. Vehicles found to be blocking the plows or causing a road hazard would be towed, said Goulet, starting with those impeding any type of emergency access.
Goulet also said that DPW vehicles would try to respond first to any police or fire emergency to make sure the road is passable. “We feel pretty secure. As far as the city is concerned, we are ready,” stated Goulet.

-- With Associated Press reports