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This story was reported by Robert Brodsky, Alfonso A. Castillo and Matthew Chayes and Craig Schneider. It was written by Brodsky.
Do not blame us.
It was Friday night on Long Island, New York City, and state officials after the surprise storm in the pre-winter before winter had taken over traffic in the area, creating a nightmarish night on the roads and rails.
State officials and local authorities have blamed the slow and often treacherous conduct for a "perfect storm" of unforeseen circumstances. They pointed to faulty initial forecasts that predicted little more than powdered dust, hundreds of vehicle collisions obstructing the main arteries and the unfortunate moment of the storm – reaching its peak during the evening run – to prevent hunting. snowfall to reach the problem areas.
"We were not without preparation," said Michael Martino, spokesman for Nassau County Executive Laura Curran. "We were totally prepared, but Mother Nature threw us a ball-shaped ball."
Officials from the Nassau Public Works Department pre-treated the county roads Thursday afternoon, but Mr. Martino said the snowplow installation on the road at the peak of the rush hour would have been useless. "How effective can a snow plow be when sitting in traffic, like everyone else?" he said.
Darnell Tyson, acting commissioner of the Suffolk County Public Works Department, said his team was "perfectly prepared for [Thursday’s] Snowstorm and immediately deployed teams to clear the county's roads as soon as snow fell. "
Joe Morrissey, a spokesman for the state's Department of Transportation, said that nearly 250 plows had been sent on public roads on Long Island.
"While we fully understand and understand the frustration of the public, the storm unexpectedly intensified as motorists began to return home in the evening, resulting in delays and complications with snow removal in the surrounding areas. high traffic, "said Morrissey.
On the social media, many Long Islanders, who had been on a third, fourth or fifth hour trip, blamed meteorologists. Questions from many residents: How were they mistaken in this storm and why were they not warned in advance to return home earlier?
Joe Pollina, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Upton, acknowledged that coastal storms can be difficult to predict because of the difficulties associated with gathering information on events taking place along the Atlantic Ocean.
"We do not get a complete picture," Pollina said. "It's not always perfect."
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who had criticized the response to the storm, refused to take responsibility for the traffic jams in the five boroughs. On Friday, he blamed meteorologists, who initially predicted an uneventful mix of rain and slush, as well as domino effects caused by the George Washington Bridge closure at rush hour.
"I think this is an example that is not as simple as other quotes without quotations," Blasio said during his weekly radio stint on WNYC.
At a press conference at City Hall, Mr. de Blasio claimed that the city could not have predicted or prevented the nightmare of traffic jams.
City Council President Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan) has presented one of the few public apologies for the city's reaction to the storm.
"For New Yorkers who spent 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 hours of traffic last night:" I'm sorry, "said Johnson at a press conference in Chelsea. We have to do a better job. "
The transportation situation was not as bad on the rails, but dozens of Long Island Rail Road trains were delayed or canceled, which slowed the movement of thousands of passengers.
The LIRR attributed these problems to a series of weather-related complications, including a vehicle stuck on tracks near Gibson Station, signaling problems in Brooklyn, a broken crossing gate near Central Islip, a fallen tree on the lanes to Bayside and a switch. problems in several places.
"It was a sloppy night, but given all the transportation problems in the Greater New York area, the Long Island Rail Road allowed people to go home safely and we did our best to minimize their delays, "said Phillip Eng, president of the LIRR. "We could always do better in everything we did, but my goal was to get them home safely."
Apart from some scattered delays, the LIRR reported normal service on Friday morning.
The airports in the area were also recovering Friday from a lot of weather-related problems.
Until 1:30 pm Friday, Kennedy Airport reported 324 delays and 48 cancellations, against 588 delays and 204 cancellations on Thursday, according to the website flightaware.com, which tracks flight delays. At LaGuardia Airport, there were 433 delays and 128 cancellations on Friday, compared with 323 delays and 359 cancellations on Thursday.
The strong gusts of the storm, which fell trees and power lines in the area, pushed many Long Islanders from Nassau and western Suffolk to spend Thursday night in the dark.
PSEG spokeswoman Elizabeth Flagler said 35,544 customers had lost power during the storm. Additional teams worked all night to restore food to 32,207 of them. Flagler said he expects that most of the remaining blackouts will be reinstated by Friday night.
The damage caused by the storm, she said, was particularly troublesome as they occurred at a time of year when the leaves are still on the trees. The snow accumulating on the leaves eventually weighed down the branches, causing the trees to collapse, she said.
City of Long Island officials said they had done everything possible to prepare for the storm, but the changing conditions had created unexpected problems.
"It was not a big storm," said Huntington Road Superintendent Kevin Orelli. "Normally, it would not be a difficult event to manage, but key factors such as traffic congestion and the time of day made this storm very problematic."
Tom Owens, the DPW commissioner in Islip, said the challenge was increasing as "the weather was falling and the snow was stuck for longer than expected." This, along with rush-hour traffic, created a challenge. very dangerous for the residents and our staff ".
Babylon's supervisor Richard Schaffer said that although residents may have been eager to point the finger at elected officials or meteorologists, there was sometimes no one to blame. "It was a perfect storm between timing and conditions versus not being informed," Schaffer said.
Asked what could have been done differently, North Hempstead spokeswoman Carole Trottere said: "We could have asked Mother Nature to send this storm around 11 pm once everyone was come home".
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