The dread of winter

A region already staggered by clogged streets, depleted plowing budgets, and the near exhaustion of school snow days after last weekend's blizzard faced another winter storm expected to strike as rush hour begins today, a one-two punch that had some municipal officials pondering how to cope with up to 9 more inches of snow.

In Boston, the City Council president proposed buying or renting snow-melting machines as an alternative to loading, hauling, and piling snow in so-called snow farms. NStar, a major electricity supplier, decided to stage repair crews in areas hit hard by the blizzard, which blanketed much of Massachusetts in 2 feet or more of snow. On the South Shore, Plymouth officials had already decided to keep schools closed at least until Friday, as plows tried to clear secondary streets, bus stops, and sidewalks normally used by students.

Other school districts planned spot decisions near dawn, but the Lexington superintendent said he may have to compensate by holding classes on Saturdays or during the scheduled February and April vacation periods.

Meanwhile, Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston urged Governor Mitt Romney to seek federal disaster funds to help Massachusetts cities and towns replenish snow-removal accounts. A Romney spokeswoman said the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency was completing a damage assessment, after which the governor planned to make the request.

"Everybody is just so beat," said Joseph Parisi, director of public works in Gloucester, who planned to let his bone-weary crews rest until midnight. "It's cold. It's dark. You're staring out of a windshield. Your windshield wipers are dying. The snow is hitting you. All you see is white. It's almost hypnotizing. Your eyes start to do funny things."

In one sign of frayed nerves, a Boston man was arraigned yesterday after allegedly smashing a motorist's van window with a toilet plunger during an argument over a freshly shoveled parking space on Mount Vernon Street. Brett W. Belcastro, 22, was charged with malicious damage to property and released on personal recognizance, according to the Suffolk district attorney's office. Police said Belcastro, who must return to court March 2, admitted that he broke the window, but only after the van owner, Abdelkamel Elghorfi, "threatened to kill him." Elghorfi had shoveled the space, according to the district attorney.

The storm is expected to hit at a critical time for the morning commute. Snow was expected to begin falling from 4 to 6 a.m., picking up in the late morning and reaching its peak at midday, according to meteorologist William Babcock. Babcock predicted 6 to 9 inches of snow on the Cape, 4 to 6 inches in Boston, and 3 to 5 inches in northern Massachusetts.

A National Weather Service advisory warned of hazardous road conditions and cautioned, "If you need to travel Wednesday, be prepared for delays."

Major Boston employers such as Gillette and Fidelity Investments said their employees were able to get to work yesterday, despite snow piles on the fringes of major highways such as Interstate 93, the Southeast Expressway, and the Massachusetts Turnpike that slowed travel speeds and caused hours-long commutes.

One of the most urgent concerns for public safety officials was preventing a repeat of the carbon-monoxide poisonings triggered by the weekend storm.

At least a dozen cases have been reported in Boston since the blizzard, according to the city's Public Health Commission, which surveyed the emergency departments of 10 major hospitals. The episodes were traced to snow clogging automobile tailpipes and furnace vents.

On Monday, Boston police found a man dead in the passenger seat of a taxi in the city's Hyde Park neighborhood. A preliminary police report said the man suffered injuries consistent with carbon monoxide poisoning, the same gas that killed a 10-year-old Roxbury boy who had been sitting in an idling family car over the weekend. Police would not release the name of the man pending family notification.

A pregnant Plymouth mother and her two children remained hospitalized after an exhaust vent of their home heating system was blocked by snow, officials said.

Christine Garofalo and her 10-year-old daughter, Nicole, were in critical condition at Massachusetts General Hospital, while her 7-year-old son, Ryan, was in serious condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.

On Sunday, a 40-year-old Beverly woman died in her car, possibly of carbon monoxide poisoning, according to police. Florsina de Olveira Silva dug out one side of her car and then sat inside to talk on her cellphone. Beverly police Sergeant Joseph Shairs said Silva started her car, which was sitting outside her apartment, around 3 p.m. She was found unconscious by her roommate around 9 p.m. and was later pronounced dead at Beverly Hospital. Police say the tailpipe of her car was blocked by snow, causing deadly exhaust fumes to build up inside.

Menino urged city residents to pay particular attention to fresh accumulation around vents cleared since the weekend.

"People might think those are little things, but those are the things that save lives," he said.

The mayor convened a midday meeting of department heads in City Hall and said afterward that he expected Boston schools to open, despite being shut Monday and yesterday.

"Four to 8 inches, we can handle it," he said, "but it just becomes narrower roadways." He said that city inspectors had been ignoring sidewalks that had yet to be shoveled, but he said that was about to change.

"If they don't do it in the next couple of days, we're going to be out there fining people for not clearing their sidewalks," the mayor said.

City crews spent yesterday clearing areas around bus stops and schools. They also helped in the alleyways behind Back Bay brownstones and Beacon Hill townhouses. That triggered complaints about preferential treatment, but Menino said: "We are doing secondary roads everywhere. . . . I think we're treating every neighborhood equally."

City Council President Michael F. Flaherty Jr. introduced an order proposing the city obtain snow-melting machines, modeled after a program in New York that has placed a machine capable of melting 60 tons of snow per hour in each of the city's 12 boroughs. New York officials are also budgeting for 10 more machines. Each costs about $200,000.

"Knowing that other people are doing snow removal in a different way, maybe it's time for Boston to take a look, too," Flaherty said.

Menino balked at the proposal, saying, "They're so expensive." He also questioned whether Boston could field them equitably among its neighborhoods.

Flaherty suggested the city start with one, which could be bought, rented, or leased, to determine its effectiveness.

Tracy Jan and Stephen Smith of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com.