There wasn’t a warm welcome for Nassau County Executive Laura Curran on her first week on the job.
“Nassau County is in full storm response mode,” Curran said in a press conference on Thursday morning.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning in effect until 1 a.m. on Friday for Nassau County.
Travel was dangerous to impossible, according to the National Weather Service.
“If you can, please stay off the roads so that our first responders and plows can get where they need to go to keep people safe and roads clear,” Curran said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for Long Island, New York City and Westchester.
A travel advisory was issued from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Cuomo joined Curran and other local elected officials, including Town of Hempstead Supervisor Laura Gillen, at a press conference in Suffolk County on Thursday afternoon.
“If you don’t have to be on the roads you shouldn’t be on the roads,” Cuomo said.
Over the past few years, Cuomo said, there’s been additional training given and more sophisticated equipment acquired for dealing with extreme weather.
But, he added, those updates are no substitute for citizen responsibility.
“If someone goes out and gets stuck you get one or two cars on the highway it means we can’t plow the road … it means we have to send out a truck we have to send out help and that puts other people’s lives in danger,” Cuomo said.
There are about 250 employees part of the county snow response, Curran said.
The county has 17,000 tons of road salt and 14,000 tons of road sand on hand, according to Curran.
One to 2 inches of snow is expected to fall per hour in the morning and afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. Additional snow accumulations of 6 to 9 inches is expected, according to the National Weather Service.
What’s even more concerning is the strong winds, Curran said.
Wind gusting as high as 45 miles per hour will cause whiteout conditions, according to the National Weather Service.
PSEG has reported 1200 outages, Curran said at a 4 p.m. press conference in Hicksville.morning.
Nassau County Police have reported about 50 accidents, all non-serious, according to an update at Curran’s Hicksville press conference.
“Roads are very quiet so people got the message and are staying home which is good,” Curran said.
At a separate press conference in Levittown, Gillen told residents to “please stay inside.”
“The conditions out there are very dangerous and obviously our first concern is for the safety of the residents of the Town of Hempstead.”
In a winter storm update online, the Town of North Hempstead stated the winds could cause trees to fall and power outages.
Most, if not all, school districts closed Thursday and Friday, including Mineola Union Free School District, Herricks Public Schools, East Williston Union Free School District, New Hyde Park-Garden City Park School District, Sewanhaka Central High School District, Great Neck School District, Roslyn Union Free School District, Manhasset School District and Port Washington School District.
This story was last updated on Friday, at 3:30 p.m.
