Mother Nature delivers a snowy Valentine
NORWICH – Since about 3:30 a.m. Valentine’s Day, road crews from the local, county and state highway departments started what would eventually end up being a 16-hour shift battling the winter weather.
Local storm spotters reported to the National Weather Service that Norwich received 23 inches, West Bainbridge 26.8 inches and Greene between 10 and 13.8 inches. During the worst parts of the storm, as much as two inches fell an hour, according to Norwich Emergency Management Officer A. Jones.
Chenango County issued a State of Emergency Wednesday night, effective from 7 p.m. until 6 a.m. this morning.
Chenango County Emergency Management Deputy Director Matt Beckwith said, “People have to understand, our guys can’t work more than 16 hours in a shift, and they all have lives of their own to see to, especially on a holiday. The county doesn’t have enough personnel to run a split shift operation.” After conferences throughout the day with state, local and county officials, Beckwith said, “The general consensus was things are going to get worse before they get better. The national services were telling us three inches an hour, and our crews couldn’t keep up with that.” Chairman of the Board of Supervisors Richard B. Decker decided to close the roads based on this information, said Beckwith.
The county did have drivers on emergency call through the night, although they had to stop operations to allow drivers required time off. Chenango County Public Works Director Randy Gibbon said, “We are responsible for about 380 miles of center lane roads” – nearly three times more than the New York state crews handle. Chenango County has 21 full service trucks and works alongside local village and town crews.
Crews returned to the roads at around 3:30 a.m. this morning, and most of the roads in Chenango are on their way to returning to normal, said Gibbon.
“It could have been a lot worse. The National Weather Service predicted that a large portion that went west of us could have dropped between 3 or 4 inches an hour,” said Jones.
Everyone acknowledged the hard work and collaboration by their crews as being exemplary and also said the public did very well in staying off the roads last night. Jones reported that they were very few motor vehicle accidents yesterday.
“We appreciate what a great job our guys did and the public listened very well. There was hardly a car on the road last night,” said Gibbon.
Local storm spotters reported to the National Weather Service that Norwich received 23 inches, West Bainbridge 26.8 inches and Greene between 10 and 13.8 inches. During the worst parts of the storm, as much as two inches fell an hour, according to Norwich Emergency Management Officer A. Jones.
Chenango County issued a State of Emergency Wednesday night, effective from 7 p.m. until 6 a.m. this morning.
Chenango County Emergency Management Deputy Director Matt Beckwith said, “People have to understand, our guys can’t work more than 16 hours in a shift, and they all have lives of their own to see to, especially on a holiday. The county doesn’t have enough personnel to run a split shift operation.” After conferences throughout the day with state, local and county officials, Beckwith said, “The general consensus was things are going to get worse before they get better. The national services were telling us three inches an hour, and our crews couldn’t keep up with that.” Chairman of the Board of Supervisors Richard B. Decker decided to close the roads based on this information, said Beckwith.
The county did have drivers on emergency call through the night, although they had to stop operations to allow drivers required time off. Chenango County Public Works Director Randy Gibbon said, “We are responsible for about 380 miles of center lane roads” – nearly three times more than the New York state crews handle. Chenango County has 21 full service trucks and works alongside local village and town crews.
Crews returned to the roads at around 3:30 a.m. this morning, and most of the roads in Chenango are on their way to returning to normal, said Gibbon.
“It could have been a lot worse. The National Weather Service predicted that a large portion that went west of us could have dropped between 3 or 4 inches an hour,” said Jones.
Everyone acknowledged the hard work and collaboration by their crews as being exemplary and also said the public did very well in staying off the roads last night. Jones reported that they were very few motor vehicle accidents yesterday.
“We appreciate what a great job our guys did and the public listened very well. There was hardly a car on the road last night,” said Gibbon.
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