Boston Lifts Snow Emergency Parking Ban, Schools To Reopen Wednesday

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino is asking residents and drivers to be careful navigating city streets as snow removal crews continue to clean up from last weekend's storm.

Snow emergency parking bans were lifted in Boston and Somerville Tuesday evening, and public schools in both cities will reopen Wednesday. (See here for all closings and delays.)

Utilities are still working to restore power to tens of thousands of customers, with most remaining outages on the south coast and Cape Cod. (See outage maps: NStar, National Grid)

National Grid said more than 850 crews are working on the South Shore, and are being hampered by severe damage to lines and equipment, access challenges posed by snowdrifts, and unplowed and narrower-than-normal streets.

Crews from 26 states and from Canada have arrived to assist and the utility said it expects to have all its customers back online by Tuesday night.

On Tuesday, Boston put more than 50 recruits from the firefighting academy to work across the city to dig out fire hydrants still buried under snowdrifts.

They were dispatched in teams of 10 to East Boston, Roxbury, Allston, and Charlestown. They will move to other parts of the city as needed.

Department spokesman Steve MacDonald says the recruits will probably be excused from their daily two-mile run.

With reporting by The Associated Press and the WBUR Newsroom