SCRANTON -- About a dozen front-end loaders and dump trucks descended on Scranton's south and west sides on Friday to help clear snow in some parts that hadn't seen a plow at all.
Paul Emiliani saw no sign of a city plow on his block of Dorothy Street in west Scranton all week, but when they came, they came in force.
"I shoveled my way all the way out to the road, and then people made paths and stuff on the road. I was able to get down to Main Avenue," Emiliani said.
The heavy equipment hit the city's most densely populated neighborhoods in the west side and south side, clearing streets that city snow plows couldn't go down.
"But this is a first. This is really, really something. What do you do with it? What do you do with the snow now?" Emiliani said.
The crews have been putting the snow wherever they can find room. An empty lot on North Washington Avenue in the city is one of several designated snow dump sites.
In south Scranton, the front-end loaders busted through snow building up on the network of courts and alleys, allowing Sharon Thauer to open her garage for the first time this week.
"I was thankful I didn't keep my car in the garage because I wouldn't have gotten it until today," Thauer said. "But I'm on the street and my neighbors across the street helped me dig it out in case there's an emergency, and one neighbor did make a food run for the neighborhood yesterday."
Thauer and her neighbor Don Briskey said though they felt stranded, a record-breaking snowfall isn't going to be cleaned up in record time.
"I think they did a good job," Briskey said.
"They're doing the best they can," Thauer said. "I mean, we're in the city, the outskirts, yes. They have some place to put it."
Scranton's snow cleanup is far from over. The mayor said that after the crews finished working in west side and south side, they would move on to Green Ridge and north Scranton.