The focus today is the cleanup after the heavy, wet, spring snowstorm that slowed us down yesterday, and brought down tree limbs and power lines.
According to preliminary reports Virgil saw 18 Inches of heavy snow while Marathon and Willet saw 15 inches of snow. The City of Cortland and elsewhere saw about 9 inches, says the National Weather Service.
Both National Grid and and NYSEG brought in more than 1,000 additional line personnel to help with repairs.
NYSEG says damage is severe, with a large number of downed power lines and broken poles due to fallen trees. Please remember to stay away from storm debris as it may contain downed wires or other damaged equipment.
NYSEG outages are clustered in the rural south and eastern parts of Cortland County.
The utility reports 19-hundred of its 29-hundred customers in the county lost power as of last night.
(Outage list: https://www.nyseg.com/wps/portal/nyseg/outages/reportorviewoutage/viewoutagelist) (Outage map: https://outagemap.nyseg.com/)
National Grid reports about 220 customers without power out of the 18-thousand it serves in our county.
Most are in Solon, Truxton, Virgil, Cuyler and Cortlandville, and should get service back by midday Wednesday.
(Hidden tab on the left side with the list: https://outagemap.ny.nationalgridus.com/reports/06c8ed31-48c2-4104-a9a2-41f844152ae3)
The snow kept plows, police and firefighters busy.
Cincinnatus firefighters started yesterday’s snow day at 4:48 am responding to a garage and trailer fire on Freetown Crossroad. Help came from Willet, Cortlandville, McGraw and Marathon. Volunteers also responded to multiple calls through the day, and opened the Cincinnatus Firehouse to anyone needing a place to get warm, charge their phones or get something to eat.
Cortlandville volunteer firefighters tell us they answered 31 calls, including the Cincy fire and a tractor-trailer/car crash on 81 north, between Marathon and Polkville. Most of the calls were for trees and wires down.
Homer firefighters responded to 14 incidents of trees or wires down, especially on Routes 41A, 90 and 281, along with East Homer-Baltimore, Cold Brook, West Scott, Long and Town Line Roads. Volunteers, utility, DOT and highway crews along with Troopers and bystanders cleared many trees to open roads.
Virgil firefighters worked from 3:30 am to 6:30 pm last night, handling downed trees and power lines, EMS calls, and loose livestock. At about 11:30, they were needed for the rupture of a thousand-gallon propane tank that forced evacuation of homes near Greek Peak. Cortland Fire Hazmat, Marathon, Dryden and Harford helped, along with Corning Gas and Suburban Propane. A long day.
Harford firefighters say they lost count of how many trees they removed from roads in that town.
