After Winter Storm Jonas left a blanket of nearly two feet of snowfall this weekend, Nassau County residents were plagued with highway closures, Long Island Rail Road service suspensions and power outages.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency Saturday, banning all travel on Long Island and New York City parkways and expressways at 2:30 p.m. and further suspending all mass transit service at 4 p.m.
The travel ban was then lifted at 7 a.m. Sunday morning, though LIRR service remained suspended.
“This was a truly historic storm, and while we have made good progress we are not done working yet,” Cuomo said in a press release Sunday. “The travel ban has been lifted, but New Yorkers should still avoid unnecessary travel — please use caution, plan ahead and stay safe. I want to thank the incredible people who worked around the clock responding to this storm. Many of them are still out there trying to clear the tracks and get full service restored across our public transit systems. Whether it was our thousands of state and local workers shoveling snow or the individuals who checked on their neighbors and offered a helping hand, this was a great example of how New Yorkers come together in times of need.”
According to the National Weather Service, New York City’s Central Park saw a near-record snowfall of 26.8 inches and John F. Kennedy Airport saw a record 30.5 inches of snow.
Cuomo said Sunday that service on every LIRR branch would be restored at 5 a.m. Monday morning, but that time was pushed back to 7 a.m. due to ice and snow build up refreezing rail lines, the LIRR announced.
Service on the Babylon, Ronkonkoma and Huntington branches resumed around 6 a.m., the LIRR announced on Twitter, with service on the Oyster Bay, Port Jefferson and Montauk branches resuming at 7 a.m.
As of 2 p.m. Monday, LIRR service on the Far Rockaway, Hempstead, Port Washington, Long Beach and West Hempstead branches remained suspended.
MTA spokesman Sal Arena said Port Washington-line service was supposed to resume Monday morning, but due to “weather-related” issues, they were not able to safely open up the line.
The MTA announced Monday around 2:45 p.m. that service on the Port Washington branch would resume on regular schedule for the “P.M. Rush Hour.”
The MTA will release an update at 5 p.m. Monday, Arena said, but they did not know if they would have a time for when service would be resumed on suspended lines.
Arena said the snow storm impacted more than just railroad tracks, with various aspects of the MTA’s system needing to be restored.
“Once the snow is cleared, what you face typically is more snow that was blown back so you have to go back and do it again,” Arena said. “You also face equipment that is frozen, like switches for example. You face situations where ice has built up on the third rail and so trains are not able to draw the electricity they need. It’s a system-wide thing.”
He added that the MTA stores unused trains in a yard during snow-removal efforts, so after railways are dug out from the snow, trains need to be dug out as well to get them back in service.
The Town of North Hempstead is continuing its efforts to make roads and streets as safe for residents as possible.
Town of North Hempstead spokeswoman Carole Trottere said the town’s Highway Department was working on widening roads to better accommodate cars and buses, as well as cleaning street corners of piled up snow.
Trottere also said the town’s Code Enforcement unit would not be fining parking violators Monday, but were inspecting commercial sidewalks to make sure handicapped parking spaces and fire zones were not blocked by snow.
“We are giving commercial property owners and those responsible for commercial property until Thursday or Friday to comply,” she said. “They are giving those responsible for the handicapped parking spaces until Tuesday to comply.”
The Highway Department was also trucking piles of snow from areas around town into a parking lot at North Hempstead Beach Park, Trottere said.
PSEG Long Island sent out updates throughout Saturday’s storm on power outages throughout Long Island and the Rockaways.
According to an email update Saturday at 11:30 a.m., PSEG said 3,738 of its approximately 1.1 million customers were left without power.
By 10:45 p.m. that night, PSEG said only 504 residents were left without power.
According to a graphic on PSEG’s website, 520 households in Nassau County were without power at some point during the storm, with 487 households impacted in Long Beach alone.
In the Town of North Hempstead, less than five residences lost power, according to the graphic, all in Garden City Park.
