Nashville debuts new snowplows, including Dolly Plowton, as winter storm hits

Nashville put five new snowplows into service on Saturday, including a purple-and-pink vehicle nicknamed Dolly Plowton, as a powerful winter storm brought snow and ice to the region. The storm swept across a large swath of the United States, with nearly 200 million people in its path.

Nearly eight inches of snow fell in Arkansas, nearly an inch of ice formed in Louisiana and temperatures fell to minus 1 in northern Texas. By Saturday night more than 100,000 utility customers in the southern United States were without power, and airlines had canceled more than 14,000 flights.

Forecasters warned of potentially catastrophic ice accumulation in parts of the South and the Mid-Atlantic, and at least 22 states and the District of Columbia had declared states of emergency. Nashville’s plow fleet now numbers 45; the five new trucks cost about $350,000 apiece and the city spent roughly $200,000 on a driver training simulator.

The new, wider plows — painted and named by public school students as Dolly Plowton, Music City Plow, Blizzard of Oz, Snowella and Frosty the Snow Plow — use iPads for digital routes and will cover about 603 additional miles of roads this winter. City workers logged 12-hour shifts clearing streets as residents watched and waved.

Key Topics

World, Nashville, Winter Storm, Dolly Plowton, Snowplows, Power Outages