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Snow Emergencies Declared Across The Capital Region As Winter’s First Big Storm Hits

Northeasterners woke up to more than a foot of snow Thursday.
 States of emergency are in effect in several counties including Albany, Dutchess, Saratoga and Ulster as plows battle snow and officials urge people to stay home off the roadways so they can be cleared.

Hudson Valley Weather CEO Alex Marra says Mother Nature got us good this time.
 

Credit Hudson Valley Weather
"You can imagine there's some folks out there who were only supposed to get six, eight inches and now have 40 inches." ~ Alex Marra

"What's serendipitous about this particular storm is most forecasters knew this storm was coming about seven days ago. So when you talk about the advances in technology, seven days out, we knew this storm was coming. But six hours out, we didn't know Albany would get over two feet of snow."

Albany International Airport is open and operating, although nearly half of today's departing flights have been canceled by the storm.

States of Emergency are also in effect in Troy and Albany**, where Mayor Kathy Sheehan says people should stay off the roads. She's hopeful that conditions improve during the afternoon.

"Really only emergency workers should be using the roads right now. We are going to be implementing our snow emergency for move over of cars tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock. And so we have issued you know, out on social media and on Nixle the information about that, but you know, people should expect that it is going to remain treacherous throughout this morning. I believe now they're saying that the snow should wrap up around 1 o'clock but you know, it is the conditions are treacherous, you know, in Albany and all over the Capital Region and so we're just encouraging people stay home, be patient. And don't plan on, you know, being able to get out and about the way you normally would for a while because it's not safe out there."

A snow emergency will also be going into effect in Troy, where Mayor Patrick Madden is also urging residents to be patient and stay safe.

“We received a fair amount of snow vary throughout the city from probably 18 to 26 inches or so. We are asking people if travel is not essential today to please stay home. That will give our emergency workers the opportunity to plow the streets better if people are not on them. Also, if ambulances or fire trucks need to get through, we'd rather people not be out on the road unless it's absolutely essential. The municipal garbage pickup and recycling scheduled for today Thursday, December 17 will be delayed one day at this point. I'd ask people to keep an eye on the city website www.troyny.gov for updates and changes as they develop.”

Speaking in Kingston, Governor Andrew Cuomo also asked people to stay off the roads so plows can clear them.

"We have about 9100 power outages that we are working through right now. We had about 600 automobile accidents and we had about two fatalities, so it is a serious condition, and again, stay home if you can. "

Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro says things are slowly getting back to normal...

“Under the circumstances, it's going to take highway crews, really throughout the county or the duration of today to get roads really safe and passable. It's packed up a bit it was tough to keep up with. We have the added confluence of a few highway departments locally being stretched pretty thin because either employees have tested positive with COVID or are required to isolate because of contact so we just asked residents to be patient if you don't have to be on the road today. I think we'll be operational again tomorrow. But be safe and of course in an emergency dial 911.”

Weather forecasters in New York City had the storm's number, but Marra says none of the computer guidance that the professionals use showed the bands of heavy snow making it much further north than south of Albany.

“Those bands did in fact set up from Binghamton, to Albany, points North, Glens Falls all the way into Vermont. So areas that less than 24 hours ago only had winter weather advisories, were only forecast to receive a few inches have now received anywhere from 20 inches to, if you get into the Binghamton area, there's some places out there now reporting 45 inches of snow. So as you can imagine, that left some people unprepared. Road crews unprepared. Hudson Valley still did pretty well. I mean, we have 12 to 20, probably down here mid Hudson Valley, upper Hudson valley. But the biggest surprise from a forecasting standpoint, is what occurred over the Capital Region just north of the Capital Region, back through Central New York, into Binghamton. You can imagine there's some folks out there who were only supposed to get six, eight inches and now have 40 inches. But that's what happens with these bands. They're hard to predict.”

** Albany residents can find Snow Emergency brochures, which outline all Snow Emergency procedures,  here: http://www.albanyny.gov/Libraries/General_Services/When_it_Snows_in_Albany_Flyer.sflb.ashx

Dave Lucas is WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief. Born and raised in Albany, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of local radio since 1981. Before joining WAMC, Dave was a reporter and anchor at WGY in Schenectady. Prior to that he hosted talk shows on WYJB and WROW, including the 1999 series of overnight radio broadcasts tracking the JonBenet Ramsey murder case with a cast of callers and characters from all over the world via the internet. In 2012, Dave received a Communicator Award of Distinction for his WAMC news story "Fail: The NYS Flood Panel," which explores whether the damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee could have been prevented or at least curbed. Dave began his radio career as a “morning personality” at WABY in Albany.
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