Less snow but lots of ice out there

County, town and village officials continued to urge people to stay home Tuesday when a messy nor'easter swept across the North Shore early in the morning, bringing with it a mix of snow, sleet and rain.

In Bayville, waves on the Sound are about six feet on the average. But John Taylor, a Bayville trustee said he believes the village will not get hit as hard as what was expected. “This storm is leaving quickly so there probably will not be flooding,” said Taylor at 1:30 p.m. “The winds were near 50 miles per hour before but now they’ve dropped to the 30’s.”

The plows have been out in Bayville since early morning. But now, they are having some problems. “The weight of the snow is causing the wheels to spin,” Taylor explained. “The rain has gotten into all of the snow.”

He added that shoveling has been difficult. “This is the heaviest snow I’ve ever experienced,” he said. “And they are saying it will get colder so later it’s all going to freeze.”

Road conditions remain slippery and dangerous all over the North Shore.

Andrew Cuomo urged everyone to stay home during televised newscasts on Tuesday.

“The lower volume of snow will help everyone do their jobs,” Cuomo said. “But people need to stay off the roads.”

Icy conditions can be just as dangerous as snow, the governor warned, especially black ice.

“When things are at their worst New Yorkers do their best,” Cuomo said. “Check on a neighbor.”

The Long Island Rail Road has been reporting 15- to 20-minute delays on various branches. Check the LIRR website for updates.

Thousands of flights at the region's airports were also delays.

National Weather Service forecasters had predicted 12 to 18 inches of snow and high winds for Nassau County. Now the concern is the prediction of dangerous icy conditions.

Bayville Mayor Paul Rupp has been driving around the village to gauge the progress that has been made by the plows. “Now that the snow and rain have stopped people are outside plowing,” he said. “They are blowing it out into the street. We need the streets clear so we don’t get a lot of ice later.”

Bayville’s DPW, water district and sanitation dept. workers have been tending to the storm since 1 a.m. “The guys will be working through the night,” Rupp said. “There’s still a lot of work to be done. We have to clear all of the slush before it freezes.”

Two years ago, the village purchased new trucks. “They’ve been put to good use,” Rupp said. “We have 10,000 miles on them.”

The village is working to clear the streets at the area schools too so they can open tomorrow.

At press time, PSEG Long Island was reporting scattered outages.

“PSEG Long Island takes storms of this forecasted magnitude seriously, and we proactively prepare and position our restoration workforce so our crews can begin work as soon as the conditions are safe,” said John O’Connell, PSEG-LI's vice president of transmission and distribution. “In addition to scheduling additional PSEG Long Island personnel and contractors to respond to outages, we have arranged for utility crews from other states to aid in restoring customer outages that may result from the storm.”

PSEG-LI offered this advice to homeowners:

* Save PSEG Long Island’s 24-hour Electric Service number: (800) 490-0075.

* Follow PSEG Long Island on Facebook and Twitter for updates before, during and after the storm. Remember, though, that outages cannot be reported through Facebook.

* Downed wires should always be considered live. Do not approach or drive over a downed line and do not touch anything it might be in contact with. If a wire falls on or near your car, stay inside the car, call 911 and do not get out until PSEG Long Island de-energizes the line. If you must get out of the vehicle because it is on fire, jump as far as possible away from the vehicle, with both feet landing on the ground at the same time, and hop or shuffle away.

* Make sure everyone in the family is prepared and knows what to do if there is an emergency. Visit psegliny.com/page.cfm/Home/Safety to learn about safety tips from Sesame Street and YouTube videos.

Both the Oyster Bay-East Norwich and Locust Valley school districts will be open tomorrow after a two hour delay.