Riverhead highway crews struggled all day to keep local roads open and passable, battling snow drifts driven by the extremely high wind gusts that followed on the heels of the departing arctic low pressure system that dropped between two and six inches of snow across the North Fork late yesterday and overnight.
Reeves Avenue, between Roanoke Avenue and Doctor’s Path, and Hulse Landing Road between Sound Avenue and 25A have been closed to traffic, Riverhead Highway Superintendent George Woodson said this evening. Police barricades have been set up at those locations, he said. Other than that, all local roads have been opened and are passable, Woodson said.
“We’ve done everything we possibly can to keep the roads open,” Woodson said. The brutal winds made the task impossible, blowing snow back onto the roadways as quickly as highway crews could clear it off.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone issued a travel advisory for the East End late this afternoon, urging motorists to avoid travel due to hazardous road conditions.
Riverhead Police said snow drifts and black ice are making travel treacherous and also urged residents to stay off the roads.
The county has deployed its entire fleet to spread salt and sand along all county-maintained roads and facilities across the East End, the county executive said in a press release.
The high wind warning has been canceled but winds of 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 45 mph, decreasing to 35 mph, will continue this evening. The winds, combined with extremely cold temperatures — between 0 and 5 degrees — will make wind chill values reach as low as 20-below in the morning, according to the National Weather Service.
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