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Mostly Cloudy East Rockaway, Lynbrook hit by snowstorm
Snow blanketed Lynbrook and East Rockaway on Thursday, and the National Weather Service updated its forecast for Long Island to a Blizzard warning. More snow fell than originally predicted, and sustained winds and gusts blew at higher speeds.
Patricia Renner, the village clerk-treasurer for East Rockaway, said that the Department of Public Works began pretreating the village's roads with sand and salt on Wednesday, and also pretreated the sidewalks and parking lots around Village Hall. She said the DPW started plowing early Thursday.
"At about 8:30 a.m., they began to plow," Renner said. "They will continue to do so until the streets are clear and the storm is over."
An alert was also sent out to residents on Wednesday asking them to put out their garbage and recycling as soon as possible. The DPW collected it early Thursday morning.
A message left for Lynbrook Village Hall wasn't returned as of press time.
By 5 a.m., a heavy, wet snow, mixed with freezing rain, had already begun to fall. The snow turned more powdery as temperatures dropped into the low 20s throughout the day.
The Long Island Rail Road canceled nine trains on six branches on Thursday because of a non-commuter train derailment at Jamaica Station the day before.
Throughout the Town of Hempstead, crews were busy on Wednesday pretreating streets south of Sunrise Highway with brine, a snow-melting solution. They applied rock salt to the rest of the town, had plows ready and cleared storm drains. The town had 400 pieces of equipment and 4,500 tons of salt ready to treat roads and parking lots.
At a news conference at the Town of Hempstead Sanitation Department, Supervisor Anthony Santino advised people to avoid driving as much as possible. "If you can, stay home with your kids and binge-watch their favorite Netflix show," he said.
Nassau County’s DPW began pre-treating roads with brine on Wednesday as well.
“Nassau County is helping to ensure residents have a safe commute by brining main County roadways, bridges and overpasses to prevent black ice,” said County Executive Ed Mangano. “DPW is at the ready to plow and salt county roadways. Our Office of Emergency Management is closely monitoring the storm and has put assets in place to assist residents should the need arise.”
Officials asked that people not park on streets to allow plow crews to clear the roads as quickly as possible.
