Orangetown Cleaning Up From Saturday's Snow

Even though Saturday’s snowfall has ended, Mike Yannazzone of the Orangetown Highway Department said people should still wait a few hours before venturing out onto the roads.

“The main roads are in pretty good shape,” he said at around 2:15 p.m. “They’ve been plowed and salted. We’re into the secondary roads. They’ve been plowed once already, as well.”

One thing that helped the cleanup operation, Yannazzone said, was that the roads were mostly empty all morning.

“People heeded the warnings and stayed off the roads,” said the Orangetown Highway Department general foreman. “Luckily, it wasn’t a weekday, so most people weren’t heading out to work, and it wasn’t a busy Saturday either. That helped a lot.”

Another thing that helped was when the storm hit.

“It was a fast-moving storm, which was good for us,” he said. “It came at the right time, hitting at 3 a.m. in the morning and finishing up around noon. It gives up plenty of time to clean it up in daylight.”

He offered an unofficlal estimate that Orangetown was hit with between 5-5.5 inches of snow, although the west side, around Pearl River, was hit slightly harder. Yannazzone said the west side of Orangetown might’ve gotten an inch more snow than the east side.

He added that because the roads are a little slick still, and the highway department is still in the process of salting, people shouldn’t rush to leave their homes just yet. He also said if there are no setbacks, he’s hoping to have everything cleaned up about 5:30 or 6 p.m. today.