A ‘major blizzard’ is pummeling the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions Feb. 26 with heavy snow, high winds and coastal flooding, shutting down schools and businesses, disrupting travel and leaving thousands without power across the region.
(6:30 a.m.)“In 32 years, this storm is the worst I’ve ever seen,” Riverhead Highway Superintendent Mike Zaleski said in a phone interview at 6:30 a.m. “It’s Armageddon.”
“I got guys stuck, roads closed, whiteout, three inches an hour, 50-70 mph winds,” he said. “Absolute chaos.”
Town highway crews were at work all night struggling to keep main roads open, assisting first responders as needed and helping stranded motorists, he said.
“We’re working to get our own police officers to work,” he said. And it’s difficult even with the highway department’s large trucks and heavy equipment.
“It’s bad,” he said. “It’s bad. Drifts are 5 to 10 feet in some areas,” Zaleski said. Most of Sound Avenue is barely passable this morning due to blowing, drifting snow and whiteout conditions.
“Please, stay home,” Zaleski said.
The travel ban helped keep people off the roads, Zaleski said, and he hopes it will be extended until it’s safe for people to be on the roads. He said recent forecasts are predicting heavy snow will continue till later in the day than originally anticipated.
County Executive Ed Romaine has extended the travel ban countywide till noon today and said he may extend it again.
With the “relentless, just constant heavy snow” and powerful winds, “plow operators can’t even see what they’re doing,” Zaleski said. And as soon as part of a road is cleared the wind blows the snow and it drifts back over.
Source: RiverheadLOCAL
