Residents complain about unplowed streets
Officials from five Long Island towns - Oyster Bay, Islip, Brookhaven, Huntington and Smithtown - said every snow-packed road in their respective townships had been plowed at least once by noon Tuesday. Babylon and Hempstead said work was expected to be finished by this morning.
But in some communities scattered across the Island, residents complained early Tuesday of secondary streets that remained impassable two days after Sunday's blizzard.
In neighborhoods where parked cars prevented snowplows from accessing streets, or where high winds pushed snow drifts back into cleared roads, or where plows simply hadn't arrived by late Tuesday morning, the situation remained grim, residents said.
On Lehrer Avenue in Elmont, residents were fuming over the lack of street clearing at midday Tuesday. Some said snow made it nearly impossible for them to get out of their houses and impeded the local fire department. Dozens of cars have gotten stuck, including an ambulance and a police car, residents said.
"Nobody is helping us to clean the street so we can go and get food," said Juana Prepetit, whose car got stuck at the intersection of Lehrer and Kiefer avenues. "I can't go nowhere; this is the first time I'm going out."
Hempstead Town spokesman Mike Deery said some of Elmont's "very, very narrow and older streets" do cause snow removal complications, especially when residents leave cars in the middle of a road, which happened this week. He said the town was working with law enforcement to remove the cars, and the overwhelming majority of roads in Hempstead had been plowed and about 8,000 tons of salt dumped by midafternoon.
In Islip, Laurie Perino of Sayville said her street, Elm Court, was still not plowed by Tuesday morning. She said she was stranded in her home, unable to go to her job at Stony Brook University, where she works in a marine biology lab.
"I look out my window and see that I still cannot get out of my driveway, going on day three now," Perino said, adding that her street is a cul-de-sac.
Islip spokeswoman Amy Basta said the town had plowed every road once by midday Tuesday, and was prepared to make another pass at 5 a.m. Wednesday if needed.
On each street, "We've been down the road at least once, but that doesn't mean curb-to-curb," she said. "If there were cars in the road, that made it difficult."
On Hickory Road in Manorhaven, residents said that even though plows had made a few passes at their street over the past two days, the road was still in terrible shape.
Total snow forecast by the National Weather Service Credit: National Weather Service
Mark Fekert, 36, who lives on Hickory and has lived in the area his whole life, said that he's never seen such a poor response before.
"Usually it's not this bad," he said.
With Erik Badia, Mitchell Freedman, Paul LaRocco and Rachel Senatore
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