New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says while eastern Long Island beared the brunt of the snowstorm, crews that clear the highways managed to stay ahead of it.
“We had notice on this storm, which is the good news. And because we had notice, we had the staff that was pre-deployed, we pre-deployed equipment.”
Cuomo warns that the storm could still cause problems. He says high winds and blowing snow could make driving difficult, and bring down power lines. Suffolk County has declared a State of Emergency.
He is urging people on Long Island and in the Hudson Valley to stay off the roads, as is Governor Dannel Malloy of Connecticut. Malloy has also activated the state’s cold weather protocol, as wind chills drop to single digits on the coast to below zero inland.
“What that means is that people will actually travel to arrears in communities and towns that we know that homeless people may otherwise congregate. And bring them inside and urge them to come out of the cold. We are talking about temperatures in the single digits as possibilities with wind chill factors below zero,” Malloy said.
The Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North are both running with slight delays, but Cuomo says there is no need to shut the system down. There are thousands of cancelations at the region’s airports.