Blizzard dumps 11-14 inches of snow across the area, leaves dozens of motorists stranded in drifts across town

The enormous winter storm that pounded the East Coast yesterday dumped 11 to 14 inches of snow across the Riverhead area and the North Fork and created drifts of up to four feet that made some local roads impassable throughout the day and night.

Gusty winds this morning continue to cause issues with drifting snow blocking some lanes of travel. Reeves Avenue and Hulse Landing Road are impassable early this morning, Riverhead Highway Superintendent George Woodson said. The highway department’s snow blower vehicles, used to remove deep drifts, have been dispatched, he said.

Town highway crews plowed until about midnight last night and came back to work at 4 a.m., Woodson said.

All main roads and primary roads are passable; plow trucks are currently working to widen lanes of travel, Woodson said. Again, the plows are first concentrating on the town’s main arteries before going back into developments.

“Please be patient,” Woodson asked residents. “Plows will be back in residential neighborhoods as soon as possible.”

Travel conditions are still difficult and will remain thanks to frigid temperatures and blowing winds creating new drifts across roads, the Riverhead Police Department said this morning.

The state of emergency has been lifted, police said. Motorists venturing out should drive with caution and reduce their speed, police warned.

Woodson implored drivers to “use common sense, slow down and drive for the conditions of the road.” Allow plenty of extra time to reach your destination, he said.

The roads will be covered in packed snow and ice as very cold temperatures will prevail in the region through the weekend. High temperatures will reach only into the mid-teens and brisk, gusty winds will cause wind chill values dipping to 10 below today and tonight and 13 below tomorrow.

The National Weather Service has issued a wind chill advisory for Long Island for wind chill values that can cause frostbite to exposed skin in as little as 30 minutes.

In anticipation of hazardous road conditions, local schools announced yesterday that they would remain closed again today.

Suffolk County bus service will resume its regular schedule this morning, but “customers should expect delays systemwide due to the weather, snow storm remnants, and roadway conditions.”

The LIRR is reporting delays on the Ronkonkoma branch. Hampton Jitney is resuming normal service this morning. Cross Sound Ferry has canceled some departures from both Orient and New London.

Blowing, drifting snow from “atrocious winds” made work difficult for town plow operators yesterday, Woodson said. Compounding the difficulty was the number of stuck vehicles blocking roadways and impeding plowing operations, he said.

Riverhead Town Police spent the day pulling, pushing and digging out disabled vehicles, even in the height of the storm. At one point there were as many as five or six vehicles stuck in drifts on Sound Avenue near Herricks Lane, with drifting snow making conditions so bad even tow trucks could not access them. Woodson said he took a snow blower vehicle to the area to clear it. Police assisted dozens of disabled motorists on roads from one end of town to the other, Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller said.

Creek Road in Wading River had about three feet of standing water on it yesterday. Other coastal flooding was minor, Woodson said.

Downed trees and power lines were not generally a problem yesterday, Woodson said. There were scattered power outages from Wading River to Orient yesterday, according to PSEG-LI. A handful of customers on the North Fork remain in the dark this morning, according to the utility, which said in a statement this morning just 430 customers — out of about 1.1 million customers — island-wide.