All main roads in Amman open, teams working to clear side streets — GAM

AMMAN — The capital’s main roads were all open on Thursday, the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) said, urging motorists to drive “carefully”.

In interviews with The Jordan Times, GAM employees said work is under way to clear snow from back streets around Amman.

In the capital’s Tlaa Ali area, municipality workers were using 10 bulldozers to clear snow from inner roads at noon.

Employees said the public was “very cooperative”, noting that those who had left their cars on the streets because they could not manoeuvre them in the snow had parked their vehicles on the side of the road to avoid blocking the way for bulldozers and other motorists.  

GAM workers also said that not many residents were going out on Thursday morning, which enabled street clearing operations to continue smoothly.

In a statement, GAM reiterated its call on residents to avoid going out unless in cases of extreme emergency.

The Kingdom is currently under the effect of a polar front accompanied by a depression, according to the Jordan Meteorological Department (JMD), which expects the impact of the extreme weather to continue over the weekend.

Heavy snow started falling in the early morning hours of Wednesday in the northern region and moved to the central region and some southern governorates by the afternoon, the authorities said.

The Public Security Department (PSD) confirmed that all main roads in Amman were open by Thursday noon.

In a statement carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, the PSD said roads in Jerash, Ramtha, Balqa, Madaba, Tafileh, Ruseifa and Maan were all open, but urged motorists to exercise caution due to frost, fog and strong winds.

The majority of roads in Irbid, Mafraq, Ajloun, Zarqa, Karak and the badia regions were also open with some exceptions.

The Balaama-Irhab and Mudawara-Jerash roads near Mafraq were closed, the PSD said, in addition to the road to Ajloun in Irbid’s Northern Mazar, Birin road in Zarqa and the Southern Mazar road in Karak.