Hochul: "We talked to FEMA again this morning. They are in the process of sending the request to the White House. We're hoping to get an answer soon. And within that, we'll also be asking for [Small Business Administration] assistance. As I traveled throughout these areas, there's many, many small businesses still closed - the local pizzerias, the little, you know, mom and pop shops, the retail, the restaurants - and they're taking a financial hit."
Before I go into an updated storm briefing on what's happening in the Watertown area and in Western New York, I first want to acknowledge, two events: Our hearts are broken over what has happened at the Colorado Springs nightclub, an attack on the LGBTQ community. And [in] New York, this is personal. This is the home of the LGBTQ movement. We have many, many friends who are now just devastated and concerned for their own safety.
I've asked the State Police Superintendent Steve Nigrelli, who's with me here today, to make sure that we have enhanced protections, that we're continuing to do our monitoring of social media sites to be able to identify threats, as happened most recently with also the individual who was apprehended at Penn Station yesterday after surveillance from monitoring his remarks on social media and also other places. And I want to commend the State Police for their efforts on that, the MTA Police who are vigilant, as well as the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
And we are in contact with members of Jewish organizations and synagogues and others to let them know once again, we understand the concern, the fear. Hate crime is real, and that the State of New York is taking every step possible to be in the business of preventing crimes and preventing instances and not just waiting to solve them in the aftermath. So, I wanted to acknowledge those two events at this time.
I'm joined by Steve Nigrelli, as I mentioned, our Acting Superintendent of the State Police. Also, Jackie Bray, the Commissioner of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, and Marie Therese Dominguez, the Department of Transportation Commissioner. I've spent a lot of time with these individuals. We came to Buffalo late night on Wednesday in anticipation of the storm.
I have some updates. I was supposed to be in Watertown giving this briefing. We headed to the airport. We were all ready to depart and received word that because of ice conditions and heavy winds in the vicinity of the Watertown Airport, that it would not be safe to travel. We're hoping to reschedule that, but I just spoke to the Mayor of Watertown, Jeff Smith, to talk to him about concerns that he has. They're expecting more snow, and he says they're accustomed to it. But the snow is heavy, it's wet, and we're sending in more reinforcements there as well.
This has been an historic storm. Without a doubt, it's one for the record books. And as someone who's from Buffalo and has lived in upstate my entire life, we've seen a lot of snow. But when you hit 80 to 85 inches over the course of, you know, just a couple-of-day snow event, everywhere from Natural Bridge up in the North Country to Orchard Park, that is one to tell your grandkids about. But how you get through it is mostly how we'll be judged. And I want to thank everybody, all the agencies that came here and gave the best advice - the Thruway Authority, the DOT, the State Police, Emergency Services, Parks, Department of Health. Countless entities, organizations from the state level working in absolute concert and coordination with county officials - Mayor Byron Brown from the city, but also County Executive Poloncarz doing the work in coordination with their teams.
I also want to thank the residents of Western New York once again, and the North Country. Thank you for just following the directions, staying off the roads, and as a result, all the major thoroughfares are open now in Western New York and in the North Country with some limitation. The 400 is still closed at this time, but we anticipate that'll be opening soon.
So I want to mention a couple other things. We, with respect to the North Country, we did respond to requests for assistance from Fort Drum and in constant communication because they need to have the roads around that base plowed. We helped with Route 11 in particular. So I want to thank the [Department of Transportation] crews for stepping up and assisting there as well.
We have - we're continuing to send more plows up there. They need more help. We're also expecting another two feet of snow in that vicinity as well, especially Oswego County - two more feet of snow by seven o'clock tonight. So rates of four inches per hour are expected there. The band is going to hit Lewis, Oswego and the far Northern Cayuga counties.
Thundersnow is possible. It's kind of exciting to watch, but it is also a dangerous circumstance. We want to make sure everybody's careful. Again, the wind gusts of upwards of 40 miles an hour - that's higher than it's been throughout the duration of most this event. As the wind kicks up, it starts the blowing wind, it makes visibility difficult because of the drifting snow that's on the side of the road. So that's another area of vulnerability.
But all businesses are open in these areas, with the exception of - North Country's open, town of Orchard Park and Hamburg are closed. I know the County Executive is assessing that right now. Thruway - no restrictions at this time. Again, I want to point out the fact that we already contacted FEMA and the White House yesterday to put in for an Emergency Declaration, which will allow for us to have at least partial reimbursements for all the extraordinary expenses. We've had to bring in private contractors, mutual aid from other municipalities, and I'm grateful to them who've sent crews and equipment here as well as our own expenses as well.
And we talked to FEMA again this morning. They are in the process of sending the request to the White House. We're hoping to get an answer soon. And within that, we'll also be asking for [Small Business Administration] assistance. As I traveled throughout these areas, there's many, many small businesses still closed - the local pizzerias, the little, you know, mom and pop shops, the retail, the restaurants - and they're taking a financial hit. And so we'd like to be able to see if we can access a federal small business loan assistance for any of those. And certainly those that have had damage to their facilities is important.
We're continuing to check on mobile home parks throughout Lewis County, Jefferson County, the Western New York counties, to make sure that - these areas are vulnerable. People are living in these homes, many of them are senior citizens, and the biggest fear we have is a roof collapse, so we've already done over 600 checks. We have more parks to cover, but again, this is an area where we're asking neighbors to check on neighbors. And if there's a single sound you hear with respect to the roof, make sure the occupants leave immediately at this time.
So I want to see if there's any other remarks we need to cover. Is there anything I forgot, Commissioners? Rate of snowfall, continual power outages. Given the scale of this storm, I'm really proud of how the utility crews have stepped up. They were pre-positioned. Again, this is all about how you manage something of this scale. It's about being ready in advance - shutting down roads in advance, getting the equipment there and the other part is utilities because there's nothing more frightening for a family or a senior citizen to be in the cold, in the dark without heat and not knowing whether you can get out your driveway because there's six feet of snow, upwards of seven feet of snow, and when the plows come through, sometimes you have 10 feet of snow. One home I know has 15 feet of snow, so that is a dangerous circumstance when you need to get out for emergency purposes, but also it's just frightening.
So, power outages - we have about 300 in Jefferson County, Erie County, fewer than 100, and statewide, about 1,200, some of them concentrated downstate. But that is really a very manageable number. And it's not, no one's been in the dark a long time. This is rotating in and out. Some are going down, some coming back online.
And with that I'll just say, I think we're in a good place. Again, not declaring this is over, given that there's still more snow coming to the Watertown area, and I had hoped to be there with the Mayor and the County Administrator and the elected officials and the DOT crews, emergency crews again to thank them personally, so I'll have to do it this way. I am grateful to all the hours that you've given up over this long, long weekend. I know everybody's getting tired. I spoke to DOT crew operators and plow operators who had already worked 16 hours, and they do it with a smile. You know, they're proud to be out there. These are incredible public servants and I'm grateful for them.
Thanks for everybody for just being smart, making it easier for us to do our jobs and as a result, we see the end in sight. Thank you.
