Blizzard 2015: Riverhead digs out from crippling winter storm – photos

Riverhead spent the afternoon today digging out from a blizzard that dropped about two feet of snow across town overnight and early this morning.

Hurricane-force wind gusts created five- to six-foot drifts in areas of town and complicated snow removal operations by Riverhead Highway Department crews, particularly in the town’s farm belt north of Main Road-Route 58.

The state of emergency declared in Riverhead last night remains in effect and will stay in place until tomorrow morning, Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller said late this afternoon. But the travel ban imposed by the town was canceled at noon today.

Nevertheless, travel conditions remain difficult throughout Riverhead and will likely worsen overnight, thanks to strong winds blowing snow back on the roads and even creating drifts. A winter storm warning is currently in place and will remain in until midnight, the National Weather Service says. Additional snowfall is still possible, according to the weather service.

Roads are open and passable, but they’re not perfect and residents should avoid all non-emergency travel tonight, Highway Superintendent George Woodson said tonight.

Riverhead schools will be closed tomorrow. School Superintendent Nancy Carney made the call shortly after 3 p.m. today, after conferring with Woodson about road conditions. Earlier, she told RiverheadLOCAL she was most concerned about the safety of children waiting at bus stops, considering sidewalks and roadways piled high with plowed snow.

“We’ve done the best we can — my guys have worked 48 hours straight,” said an exhausted Woodson, who spent nearly all day behind the wheel of a plow truck himself. “We’ll be getting some rest tonight and resume plowing, sanding and salting early tomorrow morning,” he said.

Three snow plows from upstate communities are scheduled to arrive in Riverhead this evening, Hegermiller said. They are among 77 upstate snow plows being deployed across Suffolk County pursuant to an order by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The governor announced this afternoon that equipment brought down from upstate would be redeployed from Nassau and NYC to Suffolk County, which bore the brunt of the storm.

Though the storm crippled travel and business throughout town today — shuttering businesses, schools and government offices (see prior story,  “Blizzard slams East End, dumps two feet of snow across Riverhead and North Fork”) — “Riverhead fared pretty well,” Town Supervisor Sean Walter said.

“Kudos to the highway department, which did a fantastic job,” the supervisor said.

“Residents were cooperative and didn’t venture out during the height of the storm and that was a big help. The timing of the storm also worked in our favor also, with the worst of it coming in the overnight ours,” Walter said.

The snow was dry and light — not wet and heavy — and that was also a blessing, Walter said. Wet, heavy snow is more likely to bring down tree limbs and with them, power lines.

“The first big storm of 2015 has had little impact on the electric system,” PSEG said in a press release. “As of 3:00 p.m., virtually all customers who lost power as a result of the storm have had power restored. We expect the few remaining without power to have it restored today,” the utility company said.

One of the most widespread outages of the storm occurred in Wading River, where a transformer blew up and caught fire on Mereoke Trail at about 6:40 this morning, knocking out power to 94 customers. Their powere was restored by mid-afternoon.

Tidal flooding was no worse than “typical astronomical high tides,” Hegermiller said. There were no known extraordinary impacts to homes or vehicles and no major erosion took place on Long Island Sound beaches.

Residents and businesses will slowly resume normal activities tomorrow. The townwide recyclables pickup — glass, plastics and metal cans — will go on as scheduled tomorrow, the town supervisor said.

Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps returned to normal operations as of mid-day today.

“We had 18 members standing by from 6 p.m. [Monday] until noon,” RVAC Chief Bill Wilkinson said. “We only had two calls,” he said. Wilkinson praised town workers for their support during the storm.

“Riverhead Buildings and Grounds did an amazing job keeping our ramp clear so the ambulances could get out and the highway department was awesome,” the chief said. “Gio [Woodson] really helped us out. He had both of his big plows lead the way to the calls we had.”

The Wading River Fire Department rescue squad had eight calls overnight and early this morning. Highway department plows accompanied the WRFD ambulance rigs on each of those calls too, Woodson said.

Peconic Bay Medical Center put its medical and nursing staff up overnight at local hotels, PBMC Health president and CEO Andrew Mitchell said in an interview this morning. The emergency room was quiet during the storm, but there was an uptick in ER visits as the day progressed, with patients coming in with chest pain, as well injuries related to snow shoveling, Mitchell said.

“People should take it slow and be careful shoveling snow,” he said. “Especially if they are not used to doing physical labor.” See “Tips for safe snow shoveling” from the Mayo Clinic.