Historic Storm Will Come With Historic Price Tag

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The historic storm will come with an historic price tag, as massive cleanup efforts continue.

Meghan McCorkell has more on the resources deployed.

Giant piles of snow are all over the city, and it's going to take a pretty penny to get rid of them all.

A plow got stuck on their street Saturday afternoon, and they haven't seen once since. Now neighbors on North Decker Avenue are shoveling themselves out.

"One car at a time. Clear them out, and eventually we'll be to the end," said Kris Shea.

Residents are taking action as plows struggle to keep up with demand.

"I don't think the city can do everything. I think it's definitely up to us to do stuff as well," said Lauren Stevens.

Some 1,400 snow removal units have been working around the clock. The final budget for the storm is expected to be massive.

"When you have an historic storm, the budget will also be historic, and that's what people should anticipate," said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

Governor Larry Hogan has asked the federal government for disaster assistance.

"The most significant and widespread winter storm our state has ever experienced," the governor said.

At the height of the storm, the state had 3,100 pieces of equipment trying to keep the highways clear. The price tag for that is still unknown.

Snowmageddon in February of 2010 cost the state more than $50 million.

And it's not just the government that pays big for a big storm.

Analysts estimate businesses and employees up and down the East Coast will lose $2.5 billion to $3 billion from the blizzard.

"We closed at night because the mayor put the Phase III, so we had to close," said Ori Baig, gas station owner.

Now the costs are starting to rack up, as the snow slowly gets moved out.

State and city officials say, at this point, they can't even give an estimate as to how much the snow removal could cost.