Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo Holds Storm Briefing in Cheektowaga

Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo held a briefing in Cheektowaga with state and local officials to outline the state's preparations for winter storm Harper. Governor Cuomo has directed the New York State Department of Transportation and the Thruway Authority to ban tractor trailers and buses on the entire Thruway system, with the exception of I-95 in Westchester and Bronx counties, and most interstate highways out of an abundance of caution as winter storm Harper will impact travel across the entire state this weekend. The ban will be in effect beginning 3:00 p.m. on Saturday and will last for the duration of the storm. More information on the state's proactive preparedness efforts can be found here.

Good morning. First let me thank my colleagues here for joining us. We have our Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul and I want to thank the Lieutenant Governor very much for all her good work. You'll hear from County Executive Mark Poloncarz after I make some opening remarks, then Mayor Byron Brown. I want to thank our majority, our new majority, Crystal Peoples-Stokes for being here. Senator Tim Kennedy, Mayor Paul Dyster, the New York State Thruway Authority Director Matt Driscoll who is here and just finished a meeting on coordination of all resources. We have Troop A Major of the State Police, Ed Kennedy, who is with us. And we have Lieutenant Colonel Shawn Hefferon from the New York National Guard, as well as the Director of the Emergency Management Office, Mike Kopy. And I want to thank them all very much for being here.

As everybody knows, there is a major snowstorm that is on its way. It is a major storm. It's nothing to be trifled with. We're talking about potential snowfall of 11-15 inches through tomorrow, but tomorrow we're talking about very cold temperatures with a wind-chill up to minus 15 degrees and high winds. When you put the snowfall together with the wind and with the possibility of subzero temperatures, it is a serious situation.

We have deployed all of the state resources and thanks to Crystal Peoples-Stokes and Tim Kennedy, the state has more emergency resources than we've ever had before. This is not the first time we've been through this situation, unfortunately. Extreme weather is here, as we know, we're not looking at seven feet of snow. That's the good news. But we have more resources and more equipment, and it's being deployed. We have 1600 department of Transportation plows that will be out. The Thruway Authority will have about 300 pieces of equipment. National Guard has 450 personnel ready to deploy. Statewide about 5,000 personnel for plows and snow and emergency management. And the public service commission, which is working with the utility companies, because if we have the extreme weather we're forecasting, and you have that wind chill and you have the snow, power outages become a real concern and getting the power on quickly becomes a real concern.

The snow is on its way and we are instituting a tractor-trailer and bus ban staring 3 o'clock this afternoon. That chart has the routes in Western New York that are affected. The main routes are going to be I-90, the Skyway, State Route 5, State Route 400, 219, 199, 290, but all truckers and bus companies should be aware of that. It starts 3 o'clock this afternoon, goes through Sunday. They have been given advance notice and we've done that purposely so they can plan their operations, but we want to reinforce that ban is going to be in effect and we want to make sure no truckers get stranded and no bus companies get stranded and they have prior notice for their service.

I know Buffalo and you hear snow and someone in Buffalo had a great line that I'll never forget. He said, "I was born in a snow bank." So I know Buffalo knows how to handle snow and we've been through much larger forecasts than 11-15 inches of snow. But this is nothing to be trifled with. You don't have a tremendous amount of snowfall forecasted, and believe it or not, sometimes the weather forecasts have been wrong. But you put the snow together with the temperature, together with the wind, and we have a serious situation. And again, if you do not need to be on the road, people should not be on the road. Let us do the emergency operations. Let the emergency personnel get out there, let the plows get out there. God forbid, let the ambulances and firefighter equipment get out there. One stuck car on the road can back up everything and it's been amazing in my experience how one or two cars get stuck and you can close down an entire road and literally jeopardize people's lives.

The good news is it's over a weekend and it's a long weekend and that will give us the opportunity to do what we actually have to do. We don't expect any reason why a lot of people would be on the road, given it's the weekend, but we also appreciate the thoughtfulness and the cooperation and the diligence of New Yorkers to keep all of us safe. We're going to have a lot of personnel out there putting their lives on the line to keep us safe. Let's help make their job easier. With that, I'll turn it over to County Executive Mark Poloncarz and then you'll hear from Mayor Byron Brown and then we'll take your questions. Thank you.