Say it Ain't Snow! Long Island Braces for Blizzard

With snow still piled up in areas from the powerful blizzard two weeks ago, Long Island may get socked with another white punch as the National Weather Service has issued a winter storm watch for Tuesday night into Wednesday afternoon. 

Weather service officials said Suffolk County may get blasted with between 6 and 12 inches of snow, along with winds gusting up to 35 mph. 

"There is going to be some heavy, heavy bands of snow," said Marcie Katcher, a spokeswoman at the weather service's Bohemia office. 

Snowfall is expected to be the heaviest late Tuesday night into early Wednesday, Katcher said. 

The storm, which is currently tracking up the East Coast after dumping snow and ice as far south as Florida, will not come close to rivaling the Dec. 26 blizzard, Katcher said, but she still advised residents to "take all precautions necessary to insure that you are safe during that type of weather." 

Amy Basta, a spokeswoman for the Town of Islip, said the town is spreading brine on its roads today and all day tomorrow.

“Islip Town is the first Town in Suffolk County to construct and operate its own brine facility,” she said. “We use this saltwater mixture on our streets in advance of snow, which helps keep the roads clear. We also have all our plows ready to go for when the snow does begin to fall. As always, we ask that residents refrain from parking on the streets when there is a snow storm so that our plows can easily navigate down each road.”

Town of Brookhaven highway superintendent John Rouse said the town has been receiving regular sand and salt shipments for weeks now and have been using them for each of the preceding snow events that we’ve had.

"We expect our sand and salt barns to be at 90 percent capacity by later this afternoon," he said. "We’ll have no problems in terms of having enough material."

In terms of preparing for blizzards, Rouse said each one is, "like snowflakes, every single storm is different."

"What we do know in terms of constants is that storms like this are not a sprint they are a marathon given the huge size of our town," he added. "All of our people are professionals who put in very long and hard hours during these storms, but take the appropriate time to rest so that we can operate in the safest environment as possible."

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