FYI, tomorrow is Super Bowl XLVIII. You may have heard a few things about it over the past week. Why just the other day some wacko mailed a white power substance to multiple locations across the NYC metro area. And who could forget about the weather. The constant monitoring. The perpetual scanning of the horizon. Will it snow? Will it be windy? Will the football be hard to catch, throw or kick? It’s like the game has never been played outside the confines of dome or warm weather location until this very weekend! No one is 100% sure what will happen but we do know that the NFL, government agencies and a multitude of private contractors are ready to wage war on any snow flake foolish enough to fall in New Jersey tomorrow.
Last weekend a practice run of sorts took place when around 12 inches of snow fell on the grounds of MetLife Stadium. Over 850 workers (passing stringent background checks) are employed to chase snow from the stadium itself. They move row by row shoveling snow into long tubes that run down to the field (tarped of course) to be removed by machines. Nearly 30 front end loaders prowl (here) the massive parking lots surrounding the stadium. The New Jersey DOT has 820 vehicles in a 30 mile radius with the capability of spreading 60,000 tons of salt. Estimates place the total clean up time at 18 hours from start to finish of any storm.
NY1 has put together a good video of equipment in action as well a recount of the many facts barfed out above. Click here to watch the magic.