The Blizzard of ‘22 pummeled Suffolk County with up to two feet of snow starting the night of Friday, January 28 well into Saturday, January 29.
The fairly dry mix of snow made one Long Islander feel like she was “shoveling sand in a windstorm.”
Indeed, there were periods of over three hours with sustained winds measured at over 35 mph. Thankfully, elected officials throughout the state did not wait until the storm had hit to declare a state of emergency.
Early morning on January 28, Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency for NYC and downstate New York.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone also briefed the press on preparations being made by the Suffolk County Department of Public Works.
Snow impacted mass transit and roadways alike. The MTA suspended all LIRR service and Metro North Service on Saturday morning as unremoved snow posed a risk to passenger safety.
The remnants of the snow could be felt into Tuesday, February 1 as Smithtown Public Safety issued a statement saying that Mainstreet would be closed from Edgewood to Route 111 starting at 10:00 p.m. that day to be reopened no later than 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday, February 2.
Some residents across Long Island complained that neighbors parking in the streets prevented proper snow removal creating jetties of now frozen hard-to-remove snow that makes navigating their streets difficult.
As bad as the Blizzard was on Long Island, New England was hit with a much worse storm. Some parts of Massachusetts received over one additional foot of snow.
School Delays and Winter Fun
Around half of the districts on Long Island had two-hour delays on Monday, January 31. Parents had mixed reviews, with one Hauppauge mother saying, “there was no reason for our two-hour delay. The roads were much worse in Smithtown, and they still had school.”
To the same effect, one Smithtown mother was curious as to why Smithtown did not have a delay, “especially when you think of the winding roads in Nissequogue and some of the side streets that still are not clear.”
Students were happy to have a snow day, all expect for those that had to do online learning like in Montauk. For those who did have a snow day, it represented a once of normalcy for many whose school experiences have been shaped more by Covid concerns than by anything else. For those that had online learning, it represented a permanent shift that renders snow days obsolete with learning available in at everyone’s fingertips.
