Long Island braces for record blizzard

All of Long Island was under a Blizzard Watch from late Monday, March 13, into Wednesday, March 15.

As of Monday, the National Weather Service forecasters were predicting 12 to 18 inches of snow and high winds for Nassau County. The storm, many predicted, could become one of the biggest March snowstorms in recorded history.
Snow was expected to start to fall late Monday night into early Tuesday morning, with the period of greatest impact on Tuesday, beginning with the morning commute and lasting through the evening, forecasters said.

Town of Hempstead Supervisor Anthony Santino urged residents to stay home during the storm.

“This appears to be the big one. This will be the one where we really need folks to plan tomorrow to take the day off,” Santino said at a news conference in Point Lookout on Monday.“This is going to be a treacherous commute tomorrow morning. We will be working all day ... to clear our streets, but it is likely that the evening commute isn’t going to be any better than the morning commute.”

In Malverne, Paul Jessup of the Department of Public Works said his crew was prepared to clean the roads. The only thing he asks of residents is to let his team do their jobs. “We’ll make the roads nice if you just let us do it,” Jessup said. “Don’t blow the snow back in the street! It defeats the purpose of doing it. Put it on the grass.”

Jessup said that each road in Malverne gets a minimum of four passes after a big snowstorm. “At no time do we want you to be able to say, ‘I could not get a fire truck, a police car or an ambulance on the road,’” said Jessup. “That will not happen. Not on my watch.” Jessup added that each of the DPW trucks carries about 10 tons of sand and salt. “We don’t use all of the sand and salt — we deal with every storm as it comes.”

Santino said that the town had 50,000 tons of rock salt on hand and that crews have been out in force since yesterday preparing roads throughout the town with snow-melting brine, and that more than 400 workers are ready to respond with about 300 pieces of equipment.

“Our crews will be out there plowing … to clear the over 1,200 miles of roadway that are in the Town of Hempstead … to make them possible as soon as we possibly can,” he said. “Our Conservation and Waterways crews will be monitoring the coastal erosion. Workers are securing boats at the town marinas …”
Santino also urged residents to prepare for the storm by stocking up on critical supplies, from flashlights and batteries to groceries and medication, on Monday.
“Cars should be removed from town roadways,” he said. “Cars on the street, in an event like this, only impede town workers that are coming through here … with rather big plows.”

He also advised residents with health conditions to avoid shoveling snow and call 911 in an emergency.

At press time, PSEG Long Island was busily preparing for the possibility of power 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 provide assistance 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.