Eight months after the Blizzard of ’26, a big cleanup bill is coming due.

 

The Fall River City Council on Tuesday, Oct. 27, will be asked to transfer $3.1 million from the city’s "rainy day fund" to cover a different kind of precipitation: the cost of snow removal during Fiscal 2026.

 

This year saw one of the region’s heaviest snowfalls ever recorded, with the region buried by more than 30 inches. Fall River’s roads were quickly overwhelmed. The cleanup lasted weeks, with Mayor Paul Coogan and Gov. Maura Healey declaring states of emergency; Fall River alone spent more than $3 million digging out.

 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency twice denied Massachusetts any federal disaster aid for the storm, despite meeting thresholds for assistance; reporting by Politico suggested this aid was denied at the behest of President Donald Trump.

 

The Blizzard of ’26 struck the SouthCoast on Feb. 23. The devastating snowstorm left Fall River’s 1,000-plus streets unpassable, leaving tens of thousands of residents stuck in their homes behind waist-deep snow.

 

According to National Weather Service spotters, as much as 36 inches fell in nearby Somerset, with 32 in Westport, and 37 in Dartmouth.

 

Local and state officials took the unusual step of implementing travel bans in addition to parking bans. After declaring a state of emergency, Healey mobilized the National Guard and received assistance from as far away as Canada to assist with disaster cleanup and emergency rescues.

 

Fall River took weeks to mop up, with plows operating continuously. With the vast amount of snowfall, plowing became a hauling job as snow was taken to be piled at the city’s “snow farm” at the former Watuppa Heights or dumped into the Taunton River.

 

See more at heraldnews.com.