As forecasters watch the development of a ‘significant Nor’easter’ that will take aim at Long Island, New York City and New England this weekend, Southold Highway Department crews are getting ready for whatever Mother Nature may dish out.
The storm will bring the first accumulating snowfall to the North Fork this weekend — but how much remains uncertain, since it’s may mix with or change over to rain. With Saturday’s full moon and very strong winds in the forecast, there’s likely to be flooding on local roads and downed tree limbs to contend with, too.
“We’re busy getting prepared for whatever this storm brings,” Southold Highway Superintendent Vincent Orlando said yesterday.
The highway department’s supply of sand and road salt is being topped off so its storage barns will be full in advance of the storm’s arrival.
“The guys are putting plows on their trucks because we know something’s going to come,” Orlando said yesterday. “They’re going through everything to make sure everything is in working order. They’re checking all equipment and they’ve made some minor repairs along the way,” he said.
“It’s like exercising and stretching out the equipment, getting it set for the weekend,” Orlando said.
The highway department’s 37-man crew operates a fleet of 26 plow trucks and 16 sanders, Orlando said. That’s supplemented by six more trucks and six men from the town’s department of public works, he said. “All told we have about 45 people working snow storms,” he said. That includes a crew to handle operations on Fishers Island, where the department has one sander and three plow trucks ready to go.
That’s not enough to split into shifts — “We don’t have that luxury,” Orlando notes — so to keep the 410 plow miles of town roadways clear during a storm, the crews work for as long as it takes to get the job done.
“My guys know, when it’s time it’s time. They dig deep. They grab those energy drinks and coffees and just keep plowing,” Orlando said.
The highway chief asks the public’s cooperation by staying off the roads during and immediately after the storm, to allow highway crews to do their job without interference.
“People get their vehicles stuck in the snow, and we have to pull them out. Or they get stuck and abandon them and then we have to plow around them,” Orlando said. Either way, it makes an already-tough job even tougher.
The storm’s arrival on a weekend relieves some pressure, because not as many people will be trying to get to work. “Please, if you don’t have to go out, stay home,” he urged.
Orlando will also be watching the tides this weekend. With Saturday’s full moon, and the northeast wind, the bays could crest on local roadways, he said.
“We can’t control when the water crests over and we can’t pump out the bay,” Orlando said. “We just have to wait for it to recede.” He’ll be watching low-lying areas that traditionally flood, he said, noting that Skunk Lane and the East Marion-Orient causeway are often trouble spots.
“We can just do our best to be prepared for whatever we get,” Orlando said, “and that’s what we’re concentrating on over the next few days.
Highway crew members preparing plows and equipment yesterday at the department’s Peconic Lane headquarters were unfazed by the impending storm. In more than three decades on the job, maintenance mechanic Fred Friedberg, as he guided a truck hitch into the brackets of a snow plow, said he’s seen it all.
“Been there, done that,” Friedberg said with a gruff chuckle.
