Broome County Executive Jason Garner spoke with multimedia journalist Katie Byrne and says he’s never seen so many trees down before.
is live with the Wire covering the winter storm affecting the Northeast. Click or tap here for live updates
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. – Nearly 200,000 people in New York are without power Tuesday after a nor’easter dumped heavy snow on a large part of the state.
Radar estimates show the heaviest snow fell in a swath from the Binghamton area in the south to near the Lake Placid area in the north. Some of the highest snowfall reports are centered near Binghamton, where as much as 15 inches of snow has been reported to the northeast of the city.
Broome County, where Binghamton is located, also seemed to have the highest number of power outages being reported. According to poweroutage.us, more than 40,000 customers are without electricity.
Jason Garnar, the executive of Broome County, said the heavy snow has brought down trees and power lines across the county.
“Trees everywhere,” Garnar said during an interview with . “I mean, I was going over trees, under trees. It’s been like that throughout the whole county. That’s the biggest issue that we have is the trees.”
THUNDERSNOW ILLUMINATES NEW YORK NIGHT SKY IN ELECTRIFYING VIDEO
Garnar said a state of emergency has been declared, and a travel ban is in effect until crews are able to clear felled trees from roads.
“We have one town that has no services at all, in the eastern part of the county,” he said. “No electricity, no cell access. They’re under a boil water alert, state of emergency, travel ban – the whole nine yards.”
Garnar said crews with chainsaws have been dispatched across the county, but both the travel ban and power outages will last at least a couple of days.
“I’ve never seen this before in our county’s history,” Garnar said. “I’ve never seen so many trees down. This snow was not a bad storm – only 10/12 inches – but that snow was so heavy, it’s brought down so many trees and so many power lines down throughout our county. We’ve got probably half our county residents without power.”
HOW TO WATCH ON YOUR TV
Garnar said Broome County is no stranger to extreme weather, but this storm feels a bit different.
“We’re pretty much prepared for everything, but I have to say, that it was kind of surprising to see a storm like this right after Easter. It’s not something you typically see around here.”
New York is not alone in feeling the effects of the winter storm. Pennsylvania has about 46,000 customers without power, according to poweroutage.us. Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont are also reporting thousands of outages.
Forecasters said the worst of the weather should exit the region by early Wednesday.
Source: Fox Weather
