Sandy-Battered Rockland Residents Beside Themselves As Snow Clobbers Area
STONY POINT, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Heavy, blowing snow was clobbering the northern suburbs Wednesday afternoon, hitting communities where thousands of people remained in the dark from Superstorm Sandy last week.
As CBS 2's Lou Young reported, snow had been falling all afternoon in Stony Point, Rockland County. But by 5 p.m., it had started to accumulate and collect, and it was precisely what the residents of the damaged, powerless homes did not need.
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The heavy snow was exactly what would make a bad situation worse, and the people in Stony Point had had enough.
Before the snow started, Nancy McErleane insisted that it wasn't a big deal.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," McErleane said tearfully.
When Young remarked that she didn't seem fine, McErleane paused and said, "Well, one day a time, right?"
As snow fell from pale gray skies, the community was gripped with a fear of high winds.
Some neighbors tied down their furniture before Sandy, and with the nor'easter Wednesday, they had to tie it all down again.
Some people in the area remained evacuated, and came back only to put their belongings as high up as possible before leaving again.
"We'll go back to the shelter and just stay there before we can fix this and come back here," said Stony Point resident Armando Lopez.
When asked if he was ready for another storm, Ken Willem said: "No, no, no. Not at all."
Rockland County Fire and Emergency Director Gordon Wren said he was bracing for a new round of power outages from the expected snowfall.
"Up here, a plowable snow – a wet, clinging snow that will cling to limbs, leaves and branches adding weight and then the high winds," Wren said. "It's a bad combination."
A few who left for Sandy and have returned could not bring themselves to evacuate again. Xavier DeLeon said he and his family would ride the Nor'easter out.
"I don't see myself leaving again. It's too risky," DeLeon said. During Sandy, he was gone "around eight days; had to come back to come back and forth. There was a lot of police activity, FEMA, Red Cross and everything, but it's just too expensive to be trying to be going to hotels, and find family, wait on line for two hours for gas."
The snow was collecting on the paved surfaces in Stony Point at 5 p.m. But that was not the problem.
Tens of thousands of Orange & Rockland power customers remained in the dark as of Wednesday, and the snow could rip down tree limbs and power lines, resulting in more outages.
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