Thunderbolt 12: Snow, sleet, freezing rain create slippery road conditions

Thunderbolt 12: The latest on conditions across the South Shore in Suffolk County

STORM WATCH: The latest on conditions across The Bronx

Thunderbolt 12: Snow, sleet, and freezing rain creates slick roads, dangerous travel in The Bronx

Thunderbolt 12: Snow, freezing rain creates messy morning commute

Thunderbolt 12: Snow, sleet, and freezing rain making for a dangerous travel in Brooklyn

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News 12 Staff

26LI8AMDonClavin

Over in Nassau County, crews are out preparing to help keep you safe when you are heading out today. Joining us now is the Hampstead town supervisor Don Klavan. Don, good morning to you. You're out there at the town yard in Uniondale. Tell us about what's gone into keeping the roads clear and safe this morning. Well, good morning to you and your viewers. Yeah, we've had the crews at about 3 a.m. doing a sanding and salting operations, focusing really on the uh the school areas, a lot of the busiest ones, and we're gonna have out there right now. Your your your weather crew hit it on the head that um it's been icy all morning. We're transitioning to a sleet and we're hoping as temperatures rise, the roads will get a little better. Yeah, I mean throughout the day it's the changeover that everyone was worried about a little coating of snow is not too much to talk about, but the ice that may come with that changeover. You guys are prepared. Yeah, we've been out. We had the crews come in at 3, and I'll tell you I've been out and it, it, you know, run I'd say 56. The roads were very, very slick, a lot of black guys. It it is improving, but we think until 10 a.m., really it's gonna be floating around 32, 33. So we're telling people take it easy. It's gonna be, you know, a little slick, a little dangerous out there, but we've been prepared. We've had the cruises out, so you should be in good condition. OK, Don Clavi, the Hempstead of, always good to check in with you. Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks, Don. Take care.

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LIAndre26_2025-02-06-05-09-52

And in the town of North Hempstead, we're told schools are one of the top priorities. The schools to me are very important for the for the kids and that's that's my number one issue is safety for all the the pedestrians and the motorists and the kids. We're told trucks in the town were set to go out early this morning. The town told us yesterday they had about 300 tons of salt ready for this storm. And over in Suffolk County, preps were already underway yesterday morning in the town of Huntington. That's right. Joining us right now is the highway superintendent in Huntington, Andre Sorrentino. Andre, good morning to you. Good to see you. I know you've been, uh, working already early hours. What are the roads like this morning? So, on our end, you got some, uh, the, the hills are covered, all the side streets are covered by now. Um, you know, we have 800 miles of road, so it's a lot of ground to cover. So, as you saw yesterday, all our salt barns are filled to the top. Um, we're ready to go. Every, you know, all our crews, the men and women, they were here this morning, 20 a.m. we started and, uh, We're, we're, we're ready for what's got to hit us. I just want everybody to get out there and be safe if you have to drive, you know. Yeah, and Andre, I mean, obviously we talked to you a lot about this. You care so much about keeping everyone safe and it's coming at a time where it's dicey. People want to try to get to work. Kids want to get to school, um, and, and it may just be one of those days where you just have to hold back a little bit before everyone gets everything under control. 100%. Most kids want to get to school, not mine, but that's, but I, I, again, it's the, the safety part, you know, the buses, they can slide probably easier than a car because the cars are all wheel drive, but the problem is, it's the ice. The ice that scares me under the snow, and that's where we got a problem. People forget, you know, it's just an inch of snow, but there's ice under it and that's a big problem. Andre, we're expecting mixing today, you know, it'd be one thing if you had 5 inches of snow, you know what to expect, you know how to deal with it. In this case, uh, a little bit of a mixed batch. Mixed batch is, uh, can be more dangerous than 5 inches of snow like I always say. But if people can take it a little easier, drive a little slower, if you don't have to be out later on, hopefully it turns to rain. We can only hope, right? We can only hope. Andre Sorrentino with the town of Huntington, thanks so much for joining us at this early hour. We'll check back in. Be safe.

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LIKrupski26_2025-02-06-05-44-37

Keeping an eye on conditions all across the island this morning. Yeah, and joining us now on the phone is the Southold town supervisor Al Krpsky. Al, good morning to you. Thanks for joining us. What are you expecting and how are you preparing in Southhold this morning? Yeah, thanks for the call. Thanks for having me on. Um, you, you know, you're providing good coverage to to help us along here, but Mother Nature, we always said Mother Nature bats last. So, we, you know, we, we're trying to be prepared as we can. I spoke to the highway superintendent Dan Goodwin about a half an hour ago. He had a lot of trucks loaded up with sand and salt yesterday, and they're loading the rest up and they're on the road now treating the roads, the local roads. The state has already been out here treating the roads, so, uh, we should be in pretty good shape. I spoke to Police Chief Cratton this morning and he said everything's pretty quiet so far. You know, we've been talking about, you know, that switchover where you're going to get the snow and then it's going to become rain and, and, and people just saying, you know, that's the worst. They'd rather just have some snow that they could get the plows off the road. We could see some accidents start to build up because of this, um, but you're, you have that handled. Yeah, and I think your coverage helps, um, you have people aware, hey, take an extra few minutes, slow down. Um, I walked outside this morning and, you know, it's a little bit of coverage, maybe just a, just a little bit of a coating, so everything's slippery, but that's, that's winter time. That is winter time and, uh, we're not close to the end of wintertime yet. February 6th and we got to deal with it. Al, thank you so much. Thanks.

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SALADINOINTERVIEWFORDIG0206

Preparations are underway in the town of Oyster Bay. And joining us now is the town supervisor Joe Saladino. Good morning, Joe. Thanks for joining us. Oh, you're outside. Where are you? What's the conditions there? I'm on the South Shore and reporting that News 12 got the weather predictions right again. It's less than 1 inch from one end of the town to the other, as you can see here on the South Shore, it's a dusting of snow on all of the roads. We have 50. Trucks out there. The snow is not deep enough to plow yet, but we've applied sand and salt to every single town road from Bayville to Massapequa, but it's exactly as you all predicted in terms of icy conditions, lots of wet snow, slush, and rain. We expect that frozen rain to be real dangerous, so people have to go slow. My suggestion if you have to drive today. Get out of your car, make sure you get all the snow and ice off, warm it up and leave with plenty of time. It doesn't seem to be a plowable event, but the roads are very slippery as you can see behind me. All that snow on our roads. We love when you show us what it looks like in your neighborhood, just giving us another look at that snow on the ground. You know, you have a tricky town where you have to go from the north shore to the south shore, so you have to deal with it all, both shores and many different times. It's different weather hitting them. That's exactly right, and we tend to see the worst of the snow in a band in the Woodbury, Syosset, Jericho areas. We're not seeing this. All our drivers are reporting that the snow is light, but it's very, very icy, so it's more dangerous than it appears. If the snow gets deep enough for us to plow, of course we'll drop the plows, but right now this is a sand and salt event and the best thing that folks can do is stay tuned to news 12. They've got it right in terms of all the snow and ice predictions and drive slowly. Good advice, Joe. Thanks so much and you stay safe out there as well. Thank you. And be sure to stay with News 12. We'll be tracking the storm all morning long. To get the latest forecast updates sent right to your phone, you don't even have to look. It'll be sent to you. Just download that free News 12 app.

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ANGIEINTERVIEWFORDIG0206

And speaking of MacArthur Airport, staying in the town of Islip, perhaps continue to keep you safe if you're heading out today. Joining us now is Islip town supervisor Angie Carpenter. Angie, good morning. Thanks for joining us. What's the situation there? We know we've seen a little bit of snow along the south shore this morning. Well, it certainly Jen's on the scene right there in the town of Islip, uh, and pretty well says that the roads are slick, very, very dangerous conditions, so if you don't have to go out, please don't. Uh, from the reports that we're hearing, it should be tapering off by about 9, 10 o'clock. So, uh, our crews have been out since about 4 o'clock, both, uh, on the roads and at the airport. And uh but it seems like right now it's turning to rain, so that would really be good news, but still be careful. The fact that the school's delayed openings um has been helpful because certainly when we're out there pretreating the roads, salting the roads, we go to the schools, hospitals, fire departments, emergency uh offices first. And not having the buses out there and everything really does help in getting everything prepared. You know, Angie, we just were showing video that you guys in the town sent over to us of a plane deicing over at MacArthur Airport and that's important too because as this turns to that sleet and freezing rain and then some colder temperatures may come in, that's when you get that ice. Absolutely and uh the crews there really know what they're doing. We're very, very blessed across the town really to have people that care and want to make everything safe for all. Uh, right now, the reports are that there's just one delayed flight. Uh, the first departure is at 6:30 and uh just urge anyone who's traveling today from the airport to please check with your carriers. So hopefully that plane we just saw is going to a nice warm and sunny place. Thanks. And be sure to stay with News 12. We'll be tracking the storm all morning long to get the latest forecast updates just sent straight to your phone. Have that free News 12 app downloaded.

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LIzoom726_2025-02-06-07-08-41

Now is, uh, Jeff Zabo, the CEO of the Suffolk Water Authority, uh, and we have been seeing a lot of those breaks, maybe some advice to Long Islanders as we try to get through this winter about how to prevent them. Yeah, good morning, folks. How are you? Uh, it's certainly been a very busy winter here for the Suffolk County Water Authority. Let's remember, we have 6000 miles of water main, right? 6000 miles from Melville to Montauk and up to Southhold on the North Shore. That's more, that's enough water main to get you from New York City to Moscow, right? To pass Moscow to Siberia, actually. Hard to believe, but it's true. So there are a lot of water main breaks. Uh, this year, because of the protracted cold and um long period of just consistently deep cold weather, we've seen a historic amount where we're just behind where we were in 2018. Uh, for the year, we haven't set a record yet, but, uh, this is what we do, you know, we prepare for it. We have, um, miles and miles of cast iron main that will break because of the deep cold. Uh, as far as preparation, there's not much that residents can do except for report a main break. If they see water running in the street, if they see something bubbling or trickling. They should reach out to us at our customer contact center, uh, 631-698-9500. We'll send one of our customer service technicians to investigate and determine if there's a break. Jeff, it is a potentially dangerous situation if it's not reported because we're seeing the temperatures it could freeze over, come back again, and maybe people don't see it in the roads or on the sidewalk. Absolutely, absolutely. And weather conditions like this morning make it even more difficult to report because you may see sleet, you may see some freezing rain, possibly some snow, and that, that really, uh, prevents folks from, from being very visible and then seeing it and reporting it. So, we're just asking everyone to be vigilant, keep their eyes open. You know, they're saying if you see Something, say something. Give us a call, let us know and we'll report it. Um, we're prepared for this, you know, this is something that we do every year. Last year was a particularly slow year with main breaks because of the weather primarily, uh, but this is what our guys do. This is what the staff here at SCWA respond to. Uh, they've done a fantastic job. This winter so far, I think our chairman, Charlie Lefkowitz has used the term heroic, and that's probably a great term to determine that, to, to, uh, describe the staff at the water authority. We're here to help and we'll respond as quickly as possible. Jeff Zabo, CEO of the Suffolk County Water Authority, thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us this morning. Good luck, folks. Nice to see you.

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LILIRRpres26_2025-02-06-07-40-49

are expected to be slick this morning, but how will this weather affect the rails? Joining us now is the LIRR president Rob Free. Rob, good morning. Thanks for joining us. Tough conditions, no doubt about it. How is the train service operating this morning? Well, good morning, Erin Rich. Thank you for having us. Well, I, I certainly hope you had a good positive outlook on us for this event, uh, because we provide a great service. The last event and this event as well. We're running full scheduled service and operating reliably as well. So so far so good as we like to say here. And that's great news, and that's what we have seen as the day progresses and as possibly all of that rain and snow on the rails could ice a little bit. You guys are prepared for that as well. Yes, uh, each storm brings its own unique challenges, and what's particularly concerning about this storm is the frozen precipitation. So in, in order to address that, uh, our storm preparations began yesterday by salting platforms, positioning equipment, testing our heating elements for switches and third rail, and then on the overnight, we dispatched food throughout the system. We ran the is. Trains patrol trains we tested switches before the morning rush hour. We added extra coverage to our operation center, so we're well prepared here. We have a great team at the Long Island Railroad who are ready to respond in any conditions 24 hours, 7 days a week to keep Long Island moving. Well Rob, glad to hear things are running smoothly. Uh, it could be a challenging week, month ahead. We've got a long way to go, but, uh, let's focus on today. It sounds like things are going well. Thanks so much. Thanks, Rob.

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Long Island officials joined News 12 to discuss the conditions in the their areas and how they're dealing with the snow, sleet, and freezing rain this morning.

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Long Island officials joined News 12 to discuss the conditions in the their areas and how they're dealing with the snow, sleet, and freezing rain this morning.

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Thunderbolt 12: Snow, sleet, freezing rain create slippery road conditions

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Thunderbolt 12: Snow, sleet, and freezing rain making for a dangerous driving conditions