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February 09, 2017
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VIDEO, AUDIO & RUSH TRANSCRIPT: GOVERNOR CUOMO HOLDS STORM BRIEFING |
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Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo held a storm briefing with Ronnie Hakim, MTA Interim Executive Director, and Kevin Wisely, Director of the Office of Emergency Management, to provide an update on the state's response to the winter storm. The latest storm information and updates from the Governor’s Office are available at http://www.governor.ny.gov/news. VIDEO of the briefing is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h264 format) here. TV quality B-roll of the Long Island Expressway conditions is available here. AUDIO of the briefing is available on SoundCloud here. PHOTOS will be available on the Governor’s Flickr page. A rush transcript is available below: Governor Cuomo: Good afternoon. Breaking news is it is snowing, in case you haven’t noticed. That is not fake news. We’ll talk about it in three different regions. You have the New York City region and it’s a little different depending on the region. In the Hudson valley region, we expect about 7-12 inches when all is said and done. New York City, about 10-12 inches when all is said and done. NYC, it should start to taper off about two o’clock. Hudson Valley it will also start to taper off about two o’clock because the storm is basically moving east. Once again, Nassau, Suffolk, Long Island will bear the brunt of the storm. I don’t know what Nassau and Suffolk did to offend Mother Nature but they did something, somewhere along the way because it seems like Mother Nature always packs an especially potent punch for Nassau and Suffolk. I’ll be going out there right after this briefing. Nassau, Suffolk, the snow will continue to fall until about five or six o’clock which is problematic because that then gets us right towards the rush hour. And that is a bad combination. We’ve been keeping up with the snowfall even on Long Island on the main roads, the secondary roads are problematic. But come rush hour, the traffic increases, the snow increases, the visibility decreases. This is a potentially dangerous situation. I would urge all motorists, especially on Long Island, if you have to be out on the road, if you really have to be out on the road, do whatever you have to do, do it early, and get off the road. I would encourage business owners to consider closing early, especially on Long Island to let people out early so they’re not on the roads at that five or six hour when things are going to be difficult. What is happening on long Island as well as in the Hudson Valley, we’re successful cleaning the main roads. The ramps on and off become problematic. People get stuck on the ramps because there’s an incline and that then starts to back up traffic all across the board. And once you have a few cars stuck on a ramp, the plows can’t get in, the tow truck can’t get in and now you have a problem. Again, I’m on my way out to Long Island after this and we’ll have a more updated briefing but I urge people especially on Long Island, where we have had very difficult situations in the past, to exercise diligence and consideration and business owners also in terms of closing their businesses early if it’s convenient. On the airports, from the Port Authority, LaGuardia has just under nine inches of accumulation now. 655 cancellations, 347 departures, and 308 arrivals have been cancelled. About 60 percent of the entire daily activity has been cancelled. Airports report no planned activity until later this evening and even at that time, a slow return to service. Newark basically the same, with 618 cancellations, 340 departures, 278 arrivals. JFK has about six inches accumulation, 700 cancellations. The airport is open but the delays are extensive and that will continue throughout the day. Depending on how the snow does taper off, hopefully we'll be in a position where we can return to normal beginning tomorrow. The MTA, and you're going to hear from Ronnie Hakim from the MTA in a moment. The MTA did a very good job, I'm pleased to say. They had notice of the storm and they got ahead of it and they did a good job this morning. Metro-North, same thing. All in all, we have about 4,000 operators out there working in a coordinated way. Best to let them do their job. And part of that is by staying off the road. With that, let me turn it over to Ronnie Hakim for her report. We also have Kevin Wisely to my left, who is in charge of emergency management. Ronnie? Ronnie Hakim: Thank you, Governor. As the Governor noted, we had the advantage of knowing that the storm was coming. So based on our prior storm experience, we took proper precautions and so our morning rush hour, as the Governor noted, ran relatively smoothly this morning. Our snow operations actually began last night when we laid up our subway trains in our underground tunnels so that they would be in good condition and ready to go this morning and in fact we were able to push our entire fleet out this morning for service. We are going to do that again this afternoon so that fleet will again be ready for our evening rush hour and throughout the day so far we have not had any significant problems. We did cut back some of our bus service today but knowing that we would have enough buses for the demand, recognizing it's a light ridership day, we have all the service that we need, but we don't want our buses getting stuck, and they are of course subject to our local road conditions. Most of our buses are equipped with chains, you can see them out there, but we encourage our bus riders and our bus customers to use our bus time app because that way they'll know where their buses are, when they're coming to their bus stop. We took, as the governor has noted, major preparation steps. We had thousands of extra MTA staff out in our system, doing everything from running snow removal machinery, sweeping, salting, making sure our stations and our platforms are in good condition for our customers as well as being able to respond to developments as they arise. You know service across our region has been proceeding without major interruptions or incidents. The railroads have experienced some sporadic delays due to snow accumulation but nothing that is significantly affecting service at this time. As the governor notes, we are paying particular attention to Long Island. They are predicted to get heavy winds as well as the most snow, which can add up to blizzard conditions. The governor has been encouraging early release by employers, so the Long Island Rail Road has been responsive to that and has already scheduled four additional early getaway trains leaving Penn Station as early as 1:49 PM. Metro-North, of course, has plenty of capacity in its afternoon and evening rush hour service. I'm encouraging all customers, no matter what mode you ride in the MTA network, to follow us at MTA.info, use our apps, check our social media alerts to be aware of any service changes as we go through the afternoon and into this evening's rush hour. Thank you, Governor. Governor Cuomo: Thank you, Ronnie. I'm also directing any state agencies that are located on Long Island to do an early release for non-essential personnel and that will start this afternoon and as you heard from Ms. Hakim, the LIRR has additional getaway trains. I like the sound of that – getaway trains. So the trains will be there. But again, this we have been through this quite a few times but don’t underestimate the potential danger. The visibility is going to be very low, the snow is at a problematic level, and again, when there is a vying of cars on the road, the plows and the personnel can’t do their work. All it takes is one car to get stuck and everything gets backed up and then you have a major problem. Every citizen in New York is part of this also. Be responsible, be diligent. I know everything has to be done today. Sometimes it really doesn’t have to be done today. And if you go out there, not only do you endanger yourself, but you endanger others. We have over 4,000 people working out there to keep people safe. We don’t want to make it unnecessarily difficult for them. I’ve been on the roads and I’m telling you, the roads are dangerous. I don’t care if you have a four-wheel drive car and you think you’re a super hero, but they are dangerous and many of the ramps are difficult to drive on. So if you don’t have to be out, don’t be out. Questions? Reporter: Have you thought of shutting down the subways preemptively? Governor Cuomo: We’ve done that in the past. These are very tough calls, Zack. You don’t want to overreact and you don’t want to under react. I tend to err on the side of caution. Why? Because we’ve been in situations where people could have died. Luckily, no one has as a consequence of our action. I believe there was a causality today with someone shoveling show. But I’ve been on highways in the middle of the night with people stranded in cars at 3:00 in the morning, where the car runs out of gasoline and they can’t keep the heat on and it gets very frightening very quickly. So I take these situations very seriously, and you listen to the weather forecast. Sometimes they change. You make the best judgment you can. Again, I err on the side of caution, but in this case, no. we did not seriously consider closing the subways. It is always a possibility, closing subways, closing roadways is a possibility. We did do a tandem trailer ban on certain roads, I-84, etc., and in the Hudson Valley. These are the tractor trailers that have two trailers on them. But we have not closed any roads. We don’t anticipate closing any roads, clasping subways or closing the airports but that is something we’ve always considered. The state basically is responsible for airports, buses, trains, state roads and we are constantly weighing what to do with each of them. If the weather forecast stays as predicted and people do what they should do, I think we’ll be okay. Reporter: In terms of the commuter rail, what do you know about ridership this morning compared to usual? Ronnie Hakim: It’s been very low. Metro-North saw basically 30 percent of their normal weekday ridership. LIRR similarly, very low ridership at this point. Reporter: Does that low ridership help? Ronnie Hakim: It does, but remember – we still run our scheduled service. So, we are running trains on the rail because that also keeps the rail free and helps us assure that in the evening rush we will have train service available for people when they need it. Reporter: Have you spoken to the mayor and what kind of coordination do you have with both your offices? Governor Cuomo: The teams have been talking all day, I believe starting yesterday Zack. You know, we do the New York City. We are responsible for the subways, the airports, the buses. So, we want to make sure we coordinate with what the Mayor is doing on the roads and more that they know what we’re doing. Reporter: I know you’re heading to Long Island, but if you could just recap – I know you said you’re not closing roads, but if you could describe what you’re doing with the LIE and are there plans to close down the LIRR. Just to clarify what’s happening on Long Island. Governor Cuomo: There is no plan to close down the LIRR or the subways. At this time, they’re up, they’re running, the preparation was done and as I mentioned before I thought it was done very well. So, we haven’t had any major delays on mass transit. Keeping people off the roads is very important and we’ve had a number of incidents on the roads. In the Hudson Valley we have a number of people stuck on ramps, which backs up traffic. On the Long Island Expressway, we currently, as we sit here, have quite a few ramps with people stuck on them and this is a problem. The fear is, as you get closer to rush hour and the volume increases on the roads and the visibility decreases and the snow increases, this is going to be a problematic situation. So, businesses consider early release. Use mass transit if you have to. Or, just stay off the roads. But we know, as it is now, it is problematic. There are many, many on and off ramps on the LIE where cars are stuck right now. And we’re deploying tow trucks, etcetera, but this just cascades – one car gets stuck? That backs up 15 cars and then the tow truck can’t get through, the plow can’t get through, and you have a major situation. And they are now developing. And the only way to safeguard it is, keeping people off the roads. You know, there are – people think they’re great drivers and I’m sure they are and they have great vehicles. It doesn’t matter, you know? Once the snow turns to ice or the slush turns to ice and you try going up a hill and you get stuck? That’s it. That is it. And you can sit there for hours and you can cause major obstacles for a lot people. So that’s the fear. If it is, I’m going to now look at the roads on my way out to Long Island. If it is more than I discussed or if it’s getting worse, then we’ll take more action. On the question from Zack before, you know you calibrate this as you go through the day and you adjust your actions and he conditions. You go with the weather forecast, but sometimes it changes. I want to be careful what I say because one storm, what I said was viewed as critical of the weather forecast and I was bombarded by weather people from across the country. So, I’m not going to make that mistake again, but you look at the actual conditions and then you adjust your reaction to the actual conditions, and if it gets worse we’ll take more action. Okay. Thank you very much. |
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