By mid-afternoon, the storm that left more than a foot of snow in some parts of the Hudson Valley had either ended or been reduced to flurries. Still, officials are urging caution on the roads, especially with any icing tonight amid frigid temperatures.
Despite a snowstorm that was dumping up to three inches per hour in spots, some Hudson Valley officials report their regions escaped major problems. Mayor Steve Noble says a snow emergency began in Kingston at 4 a.m. and remains in effect.
“So our parking regulations in terms of snow emergency parking remain in effect, and we’re going to be reevaluating this evening to determine about tomorrow. So what that means for the City of Kingston is that we ask all vehicles to not park on city streets so that we’re able to plow the snow back all the way to the curb and get the streets cleaned up as well as possible,” Noble says. “People are still allowed to drive. We ask them to take their time if they need to go out, but it’s also a nice night to just spend the night in and make yourself dinner.”
Noble says Department of Public Works staff has been out since the morning clearing the snow.
“But now that the snow has stopped, our DPW staff have all stayed on and are going to work through the night to get our roads in as best a condition as possible so that we’re ready for our Friday tomorrow.”
Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro says road clearing continues.
“Road crews are still out through the night, with some wind gusts expected, we are responding to snow drifts and continuing to keep roads clean,” Molinaro says. “There’ll be a significant amount of cleanup overnight but, at this point, it looks as if Friday, the morning commute, will probably be slow but, for the most part, driving will be safe and roads will be passable.”
He says there were no major incidents in the county. In Newburgh, City Manager Michael Ciaravino says there were some problems unrelated to the storm.
“We’ve had a couple of sewer main breaks. Our water department and DPW department crews, already taxed, have been out working on couple of emergency digs,” says Ciaravino. “We’re really proud of the efforts they’re making. We have some stunning photographs of them digging in near blizzard-like conditions to get to the bottom of a sewer leak.”
He had declared a snow emergency for the city at 6 Wednesday night.
“And now the big dig begins,” Ciaravino says. “We expect the emergency to continue at least through tomorrow night, 6 p.m. We may life it earlier depending on the progress that’s made, but our goal is to make certain all the streets are cleared before I lift the emergency, which will then enable our residents to park on both sides of the streets with certain restrictions.”
In general, there were just scattered power outages throughout the day. Here’s National Grid spokesman Nate Stone.
“The snow really, it was kind of a light snow so it didn’t give us as much of a problem as had it been wet snow or even ice. That’s when we run into problems with trees coming down on lines and heavier snow taking trees down,” Stone says. “There was accumulation but, at least in the greater Capital region, we seem to be pretty lucky with the snowfall.”
The same held true in the Hudson Valley. Speaking at a press briefing midday with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, MTA Interim Executive Director Ronnie Hakim said she was expecting Metro-North to be ready for the evening commute with what amounted to light ridership today.
“Metro-North, of course, has plenty of capacity in its afternoon and evening rush service,” Hakim said.
Meanwhile, Rockland County Executive Ed Day lifted his snow emergency at 4 p.m., when some bus service resumed.
