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Politics & Government

Astorino: Storm Was Disruptive, Not Devastating

County Executive Rob Astorino says roads are in good shape.

Westchester County continues to dig itself out of yesterday's storm that blanketed the region with between one and two feet of snow, but the impact was far less severe than anticipated. 

Assessing the aftermath of "Nemo" on Saturday afternoon, County Executive Rob Astorino told Patch, "It was disruptive but it wasn't devastating in any way."

By late Saturday morning most public transportation was resuming service, including the Bee-Line bus service and the Metro-North Harlem and Hudson lines. Astorino said roads are, for the most part, "in good shape."

Find out what's happening in Bedford-Katonahwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Westchester County Airport is open, as it was during the storm, but Astorino advised travelers to contact their carriers to find out about delays or cancellations. Speaking from the airport, Astorino told Patch it was a ghost town and only a few private planes were operating.  

Gov. Andrew Cuomo asked New Yorkers to stay off the roads today so that emergency workers could continue to plow safely, but the state has not issued a formal travel ban like neighboring Connecticut, which suffered far worse from the storm.

Find out what's happening in Bedford-Katonahwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

To prepare for the storm Astorino spoke with Con Edison and extra crews were on standby to manage outages. As of 12:46 p.m. today, NYSEG had only one reported power outage in Westchester County. Con Edison was working on 6 power outages -- 5 in Hastings-on-Hudson and 1 reported in Mamaroneck -- as of that time. 

Astorino praised emergency workers for being prepared and was thankful most residents stayed off the roads. "The public stayed off the road for the most part and that helped a lot," Astorino told Patch.

Westchester County Police told Patch there were no major accidents during the storm or on Saturday morning. 

"We got through it and we were prepared for it," said Astorino, adding that emergency workers, "did their job to perfection."

Estimates for the storm's price tag for the county are not available yet but Astorino said it would be, "No where near Hurricane Sandy or even the freak October storms."

"This was just a regular heavy snowstorm," said Astorino.

Astorino has offered assistance to the Suffolk County, Long Island county executive. Suffolk County tallied up to 26 inches of snow in towns like Riverhead, and 10,000 utilities customers are reported to be without power.   

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