Westchester, Rockland Officials Defend Travel Ban
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- The snow amounted to inches, not feet, in Westchester and Rockland counties. So was the travel ban overkill?
No, officials said Tuesday.
"For a storm of this magnitude, sometimes it's better to have a blanket ban," Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino told WCBS 880's Sean Adams. "But we need to be in consultation, and there can't be any confusion. I think people were confused whether they could go on a local road or a highway. And one blanket ban covered all of that.
"You can always question whether you need it or not, but at least, there were no incidents," he added. "People used common sense. They stayed home."
Rockland County Executive Ed Day called the ban a "prudent decision."
"If you look at much of the state, the downstate area and east of us, there's significant snow," Day said.
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But Day said when he woke up to just 2 inches of snow at his house, he would have liked to have had the power to lift the travel ban locally.
Regardless, the absence of vehicles on roadways allowed plows time to clear streets.
"The roads are in very, very good shape," Day told 1010 WINS. " I'm on a dead-end street, and they already got my street, which is the last one to get hit as a matter of routine."