Late Winter Storm Brings Snow, Ice To Tri-State
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A last blast of winter blew through the Tri-State with snow and sleet delaying the start of school in some areas and making the morning commute an icy, slippery mess a day before spring starts.
The storm that started Monday night and continued early Tuesday dumped up to 6 inches of snow in some spots, including Somers, Yonkers and Hartsdale.
Cleaning Up Snow Again
In New York City, about 3 inches of snow fell in Central Park and more than 4 inches in the Bronx. Parts of Long Island saw 2-3 inches of snow while areas of New Jersey and Conn. received 4-5 inches.
Shovels, snow blowers and plows were all needed to remove the snow that blanketed the area. The snow Monday night was followed by early morning rain Tuesday which compressed the snow and made for a difficult cleanup.
"It got pretty heavy, so it was hard shoveling it," said Mahopac resident Tyler Androvett.
The snow, slush and ice also made for some dangerous and deadly driving conditions.
Cars were skidding and sliding all along the roads Monday night. Police said a 27-year-old man was killed on Francis Lewis Boulevard in Queens after he lost control of his car and slammed into a tree.
In Connecticut, state Department of Transportation officials said a tractor-trailer jackknifed Tuesday morning on Interstate 84 eastbound in Newtown and another semi jackknifed on I-84 eastbound in Middlebury.
After a messy last day of winter, many said they are more than ready to say goodbye to the season.
"Oh yeah, I'm tired of this," said plow driver Andy Marino. "I don't want anymore snow."
Big Trouble In Westchester County
It was an especially messy commute for drivers across Westchester County, where many cars got stuck on the icy and unplowed roadways.
As CBS 2's Janelle Burrell reported, some motorists said road crews failed to keep up as cars slipped, slid and spun out across the Cross County Parkway in Yonkers Monday night. The traffic jams made for a nightmare commute for drivers such as Barbara Carlsson.
"It was slow going," Carlson said. "It was completely covered, even right up to my exit."
Carlsson and other drivers who routinely drive the Cross County said whenever snow starts to fall, the stretch near the approach to the Cross County Mall is always a trouble spot. Drives cannot get up the hill.
Carlsson said she believes highway crews are not doing enough.
"With all of the preparation time that they had had to prepare the road, it was totally covered by 8 o'clock at night," she said.
Highway maintenance workers Armondo Rauso and Frank Infante are part of the team responsible for the roads in Westchester during the storms.
"Once one car spins out, it holds us up, because we can't get around them with these big trucks," Rauso said.
He added that the road is pretreated, but "when the snow starts to fall and cars go over it, it turns to ice."
The crews here insist that they had seven plows and salters dedicated to the Sprain Brook and Cross County Parkway and were out on the roads before the storm even started.
In a statement, a Department of Transportation representative told CBS 2, "There are a lot of factors that go into accumulation on the roads, including terrain and weather events, and we fight that as fast as we can."
But for Carlsson their attempts are not enough.
"When people are still trying to get around as early as 7 or 8 o'clock at night, it truly is an issue," she said.
There were still no answers Tuesday evening about what made that one stretch of road worse than most others.
State transportation officials said they routinely treat the roadways with brine ahead of expected storms, which they said they did on Monday in Westchester.
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