East Coast Suffering From Lack Of Snowfall

This has been the nonwinter on the East Coast. From Boston to Washington, temperatures have been more than 5 degrees above normal, and what snowfall there has been can be measured in mere inches. For those in the business of profiting by snow, the winter that wasn’t means the cash that isn’t.

So, with March here, the financial damage is being assessed: personal injury lawyers say business is down; sanitation workers are complaining that they’ve lost thousands of dollars in overtime; ski areas say that even with advanced snow-making equipment, people are not thinking winter.

The lack of snow has left municipal and county governments with some unexpected cash. A spokesman for New York City’s Sanitation Department, Lucian Chalfen, says the city budgeted $14 million for salt and overtime for snow removal this year, and has so far spent $10 million.

“We need a couple of blizzards in March,” said a New York City sanitation worker who made $4,000 in overtime last year plowing snow.