North Shore warms up after fourth nor'easter this winter

Posted

Updated 11:40 a.m. March 22: In the wake of the fourth nor'easter in a month, Sea Cliff is yet again digging itself out.

The storm had deposited about 5.5 inches of snow by 7 p.m. on March 21, and a total of almost a foot by midnight, according to the National Weather Service.

Village administrator Bruce Kennedy said the snowplows were out on the roads as early as 2 p.m. Wednesday, and continued plowing until 5 p.m. this morning. "It was a very long day, but we have a great staff [at the DPW] and we were able to get the garbage trucks out on time for the regular sanitation schedule," he said.

The last nor'easter's powerful winds lifted the Tilley Boathouse off its dock and out to sea, but Kennedy said this storm didn't warrant any extreme high tides nor flooding concerns.

Kennedy added that the village will carry out the final stages of snow clean up throughout the day. He cautioned drivers to take it slow on the roads. "As always when you have extreme fluctuations with the weather you have to be careful not to hit black ice during the night hours," he said, "But the main roadways are totally clear."

County Wide Storm Response

The National Weather Service was predicting five to nine inches of snow overnight, and the storm brought that and more. A weather observer in North Merrick reported 11.6 inches of snow early Thursday morning. As of 6:30 a.m., it was still snowing across Nassau, though the storm was expected to taper off around 10 or 11 a.m.

Many school districts, including North Shore, were on a two-hour delayed start. Others, like Bellmore-Merrick, East Meadow, Elmont and Wantagh, closed for the day. Still others were to open at normal time. A number of districts had begun the day with a delayed start only to cancel classes early in the morning. Check your local listings.

There were roughly 3,000 outages out of a million homes and businesses as of 6:30 a.m. Thursday, according to PSEG-LI. "While we haven't experienced significant damage related to today's storm, our personnel stand ready to respond to any power outages should they occur," said John O'Connell, the utility's vice president of transmission and distribution. "We're proud of the fact that our hardworking crews were able to restore electricity safely and quickly to customers who lost power from the nor'easters earlier this month."

To report downed wires or power outages, customers should call PSEG-LI at (800) 490-0075

Check for updates using the utility's outage map at https://outagemap.psegliny.com/

Do not run any gasoline-powered engines, including generators, in a garage or any other enclosed space, the utility warns, and do not use your oven to heat your home.

This latest storm did cause more havoc for Nassau County high school athletics, which have been greatly impacted by the weather since spring practices began March 7. Today's schedule, which called for 20 non-league games across three sports (softball, girls' lacrosse and boys' lacrosse) were canceled in full. Thursday's schedule, which includes a handful of girls' lacrosse league openers, is also in jeopardy.

Tony Bellissimo and Alyssa Seidman contributed to this story.