Governor Hochul: “We've seen this kind of storm many times before here in New York… [a]nd what I'm proud to say is that we have the best team in the country to prepare for storms like this and certainly manage them once they begin.”
Hochul: “[W]e have State personnel who have been planning for this since Wednesday. Constant communication with locals getting ready for all of our crews. Everybody's been ready and working around the clock and I want to thank them. When you see them out on the roads, just please slow down, stay out of their way. They're doing their jobs. They're keeping us safe. And you have a role to play there as well.”
Winter 2024 has arrived this time with a classic nor'easter. We've seen this kind of storm many times before here in New York, but this is the first one of the season so everyone's paying particular attention. And what I'm proud to say is that we have the best team in the country to prepare for storms like this and certainly manage them once they begin.
And these are the kind of people that can make a foot of snow that would paralyze other parts of America make it look like a piece of cake, right? Alright, that's great. I want to introduce Department of Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez, who's done an extraordinary job.
Our Thruway Director, Frank Hoare, managing the Thruway, keeping them open, that's great. Our DHSES Executive Deputy Commissioner Terry O'Leary as well. And we have State personnel who have been planning for this since Wednesday. Constant communication with locals getting ready for all of our crews. Everybody's been ready and working around the clock and I want to thank them.
When you see them out on the roads, just please slow down, stay out of their way. They're doing their jobs. They're keeping us safe. And you have a role to play there as well.
And I want to thank all the New Yorkers who heeded our warnings. We said, I spoke Friday, Saturday, “please stay off the roads.” And this is a time when you open those last presents that maybe found behind the back of the trees. You're taking it down and eat the leftover cookies if they're still not too stale. But that allows our dream team to really get their jobs done. I'm so grateful.
So, our forecast is simple. The winter storm warning is still in effect until 7:00 p.m. today. That's the mid-Hudson, Southern Tier, Central New York, and in the Capital Region. Coastal Flooding: this is an area where New York City was not hit with volumes of snow as they could have had even the one or two inches they expected, but it's the coastal flooding along Long Island, Southern Westchester, the Bronx and Northern Queens.
And this is the first real test of our brand new, state of the art, first of the nation Weather Risk Communication Center, and it's at located at UAlbany. I was able to showcase this with Al Roker a couple of weeks ago and knowing the exact snowfall amounts is absolutely critical and it has really improved – this level of detail and accuracy has really improved – our response time.
We're seeing it already, so we're very excited about that, and we've been able to analyze forecasts, merge them with local data and pinpoint how to direct our resources.
So far, the highest snowfall amounts were in the Catskills and the eastern Hudson Valley, 14 inches in our winner today, Ulster County, and good news for our snow economy – the snowmobilers, the skiers, the people just want to sled down a hill. We're very excited about that for our people have been waiting a long time for a good base of snow. Southern Tier and Central New York both had about six to eight inches of snow. Capital Region it's still coming down, but we've had about four to five inches so far already, but it'll continue through the day.
I know our friends in New York City have been waiting 693 days to be able to build a snowman, and lucky for them, or unfortunate for them, depending on your perspective, they're going to have to wait a little bit. Again, we're grateful to Mother Nature for having this happen on a weekend. Having this volume of snow at any time during rush hour, early morning commutes is always dangerous and so having the snowfall start on a Saturday night and go into Sunday allows us a chance with fewer people on the roads and fewer people who need to get somewhere makes it a lot easier for us.
So, we're expecting a few more inches of snow. The place is north of Westchester and a little bit of rain, a lot of rain actually from New York City and Long Island. After 16 hours of snowfall, conditions are slushy and wet and the roads are safe and you'll get more details on that, but still be cautious. Again, you'll hear more from our Commissioner about how important it is and who we have on the road and who's been deployed where.
Our airports: no major cancellations, no major delays, minimal cancellations, which again is something other states are envious of. Subway, Amtrak our trains are running safely, but there are some delays as well. Last night, as an aside, MTA was able to restore full service on the 1, 2 and 3 trains after this week's derailment. So, we're really pleased that they could get those up and running and they'll be in good shape for tomorrow's commute as well. Rest of the system running normally, no real delays. Amtrak did cancel a number of runs between Boston and New York last night. If you plan to travel that route, make sure you check your information.
Everyone's always worried about power outages. That's why I spoke for days about how we're deploying in different parts of the State our utility crews to make sure they can be responsive in real time because as a mom who knows what it's like to be in the cold when the power's out with little kids it is, it can be dangerous. And that's a high priority for us every time we get a forecast of snow coming down.
We had about 1,035 power outages, but the good news is already 80 percent of that has already been restored and most of them were in Broome County, some Schenectady. So, that's why having 5,500 utility crew workers out there in advance can get that restored so quickly.
So, the storm may soon be done, but it's our cleanup phase. We want to make sure that we continue to do what we do and prepare for the next one. And that's what we're talking about.
Tuesday storm: it may just be rain, but very heavy rain. And if that's on top of snow or melting snow, there is a high risk of flooding in key parts of New York. And what we'll see is a wetter, windier conditions than we've seen in the last 24 hours. We could get three to six inches of rain on Tuesday. That is a lot of rain on top of the foot of snow from today; makes for dangerous road conditions. The heavy rain can also on top of the snow bring down power lines.
So again, we're going to be monitoring this closely. We have a brief respite for cleanup tomorrow, and then we'll be heading into another storm on Tuesday. But again, when the ground's already saturated, there is a much higher chance of flooding. And we'll be sharing some more details of what we know about Tuesday and Wednesday's storm.
Tuesday is an important day here in the Capital, it's my State of the State Address. To those of you traveling to hear that in person, take extra precautions and get on the roads a little bit earlier. But for now, stay safe, check your local forecast and all you can, as I've said before, sign up for those alerts. Really, the first in the nation information coming right to you through high tech operations. It's alert.ny.gov.
