(The following article by Wil Cruz and Bill Bleyer was posted on the Newsday website on February 13.)
NEW YORK — The area’s first major snowstorm of the year blanketed Long Island with enough to make for a tricky rush-hour commute this morning.
The Long Island Rail Road said there would be some canceled trains today and delays of at least 30 minutes. It was unclear, however, how many or which trains would be shut down.
“We ask people for their patience, but they should plan accordingly,” said LIRR spokesman Brian Dolan.
About 600 LIRR passengers found their patience sorely tested yesterday when they were stranded on disabled trains – some for nearly six hours.
Trains on the Long Beach, Babylon, Ronkonkoma and Port Washington lines were stuck because of snow covering the electrified third rail, Dolan said.
About 300 passengers were evacuated and transferred to a diesel train that took them to Jamaica station. A westbound train from Ronkonkoma, which got stuck near Hollis from 1:43 p.m. until shortly after 7 p.m., was towed by a locomotive to Jamaica, where passengers’ tickets were honored on the subway.
Meanwhile, Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma, which shut down yesterday afternoon, is expected to be closed until at least this morning, officials said.
On the roads, the state Department of Transportation said more than 400 employees operating more than 200 plows worked 12-hour shifts into the night. Salt sprays were applied to the roads last night to keep them from freezing.
“It’s been a tough storm everywhere for us to deal with,” Joseph Brown, the state Department of Transportation regional maintenance engineer, said yesterday afternoon.
Brown said the goal was to have the roads cleared by 4 a.m. today. “I’d like to say that we’re going to have wet or dry pavements by [this morning], but there are no guarantees,” he said.