Island weathers the storm: crews clear roads, no power outages reported

When the snow eased off and stopped, turning to rain yesterday evening, the Shelter Island Highway Department crews began “pushing all the slush off the roads,” Superintendent Brian Sherman said at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday.

It was a long night , but nothing like the battle against blizzard-like conditions at midday Monday, when high winds drove snow into a blinding whiteout.

No power outages on the Island were reported by PSEG as of 6 a.m. today, which is remarkable since, as Mr. Sherman said, “this  was a really heavy snow.”

High tides caused flooding, with water over Ram Island and West Neck roads. The high water caused North and South ferries to have steep boarding and disembarking procedures at the  docks.

The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued a coastal flood watch until 5 p.m. today.

The highway crews will be out today “finding drains and taking care of hangers,” Mr. Sherman said. After every heavy snow fall, crews have to locate road drains and clean them of debris so water can drain away. “Hangers” are tree limbs that “are leaning against something,” Mr. Sherman said, and must be sawed down.

Today, the school building is closed but there will be at home, virtual learning. The schedule for school today is: messages/attachments/40d9ab9916d66bd8994e3ce490c73676/Feb_2_Virtual_Day.pdf 

The Shelter Island Public Library will open today at 2 p.m.

The NWS  is calling for rain showers today until about 3 p.m., when there’s a possibility of snow showers mixing with the rain. The day will reach its highest temperature around 10. a.m. of 40 degrees and then fall to around 34 for the rest of the daylight hours.

It will be a breezy day, according to the NWS , with a north wind at 15 to 20 mph and gusting to 33 mph.

Tonight there’s a chance of snow showers and a low temperature of 27 degrees, with the wind staying out of the north at 10 to 13 mph.