Governor Hochul: "I really hope people will stay home tonight, but if they have to travel, drive slower than normal. Sometimes you have to put your flashers on if you're in the middle of a whiteout, be aware of that. Have your phone charged, make sure you have water and food and blankets and make sure your gas tank is full. And those are all the ways you can protect yourself and watch out for those plows. They are big, they're doing their job and it's hard for them if other people are cutting around them or, you know, being in front of them and going slow. Let's let them do their job, stay out of their way and things will feel a lot better tomorrow."
Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul was a guest on WCBS 880 radio with Anita Bonita to update New Yorkers on the winter storm.
AUDIO of the interview is available here.
A rush transcript of the interview is available below:
Anita Bonita: We are very privileged to have on our newsline, Governor Kathy Hochul, so good afternoon, Governor.
Governor Hochul: Good afternoon, and thank you for your continuous coverage as we encourage people to stay home and be safe. And it's been really important, the role that you've played in this as well.
Anita Bonita: Well, thank you. It's not your first snowstorm by a long shot, but it is your first as the state's chief executive. Was there anything about it that surprised you?
Governor Hochul: I have to say, not at all. This is a classic Nor'easter, but having, as Lieutenant Governor, I was responsible for storm response in Buffalo at a time when it was seven feet of snow that came in just about a two day, period, and traffic was shut down. People were stranded, literally, for 20-some hours on the highways. So, I come to this position with tremendous experience and knowledge that it's all about preparation. We can't control the weather, but we can control our preparations in advance as well as our response. And that's why, beginning on Wednesday, I started sounding the alarms, calling out our teams, making sure that we are positioned on the ground, ready with the plows, ready with utility crews. We prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
Anita Bonita: What can you tell us about this particular storm's impact and the state's response?
Governor Hochul: Well, we made sure that we had our DOT and Thruway Authority crews ready to salt earlier, even before the first snow fell. So, that's an important part that people may take for granted, but there's a reason why the roads are going to be passable far earlier than they would have been in a normal circumstance. We were out there early and I feel very comfortable with the fact that we had 100 percent of our state roads stay open during even the worst part of the storm, which seems to be abating now, particularly in our hardest hit areas of, you know, from Suffolk County, Nassau, we're going to have a little bit lighter snow there, but it's not accumulating at the same rate. So, we are handling this because we are prepared and also continuous outreach to our local partners. I was on the phone with the county executives of Nassau and Suffolk, Mayor of New York, and I spoke to Westchester County, Rockland County, just to let them know that whatever they need, we are there for them.
And we are embedded with their emergency operation teams, and I'm really proud of the effort of everyone involved, because this is a real team effort. We're not out of the woods, though. I really want to not sound like we're through this because my experience is that it becomes much more treacherous once dark settles in. You cannot see that black ice on the road. All of a sudden, the wind can kick up and we are expecting more gusts of wind in the next couple of hours. Then you have a whiteout, you cannot see the cars in front of you, or that you're in an area that you could end up going off the road. And that's when it's very dangerous. So, I really hope people will stay home tonight, but if they have to travel, drive slower than normal. Sometimes you have to put your flashers on if you're in the middle of a whiteout, be aware of that. Have your phone charged, make sure you have water and food and blankets, and make sure your gas tank is full, and those are all the ways you can protect yourself and watch out for those plows. They are big, they're doing their job and it's hard for them if other people are cutting around them or, you know, being in front of them and going slow. Let's let them do their job, stay out of their way and things will feel a lot better tomorrow.
Anita Bonita: And that does address tonight and tomorrow's situations. Do you expect everything to be back to business as usual for the start of the work week?
Governor Hochul: I do. We fully expect we're going to have, for example, the Long Island Rail Road cleared, ready for commuters on Monday. The subway and buses have been working very well through this. I had the head of the MTA, Janno Lieber, with me at a press conference, and it is quite extraordinary that everything is operating so well. Now we benefit from the fact that it was a weekend, but that gave us the opportunity to handle all the clearing of snow from the tracks that other places they could have been a real problem for us. So, I'm feeling very optimistic about the morning commute. Our trains, I just want to say we've continued to suspend the LIRR service until Monday morning, so that's not open right now. Metro North, we're going to have hourly service on three lines, as well as most of the subway operations are fine, except for the A line, which is over in Rockaway. Given the scale of this storm and the scale of our operations, this is quite a very limited impact on an overall large system. So that's the very positive news for people.
Anita Bonita: New York Governor Kathy Hochul, thank you so much for joining us here on WCBS 880.
Governor Hochul: Thank you.