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

Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo held a briefing in Hawthorne with state and local officials to outline the state's preparations for winter storm Harper. Governor Cuomo provided an update on the ongoing winter weather affecting communities statewide. As a large system forecasted to bring up to two feet of snow in some locations moves into the state this afternoon, the Governor has directed the State's Emergency Operation Center to raise their activation to level 3. Yesterday, the Governor 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 starting at 3 p.m. today and lasting through the storm. Earlier this week, the Governor directed state agencies to conduct a number of preparatory measures, including the pre-deployment of critical assets, as well as the activation of both the State Emergency Operations Center and 450 members of the National Guard to assist with state storm response missions. Those measures all remain in effect. More information on the state's proactive preparedness efforts can be found here.

Good afternoon. Let me acknowledge my colleagues who are with us today. We have County Executive George Latimer who you will hear from in a moment. I want to thank him very much for his help and his cooperation. We have Senator Peter Harckham who is new to the State Senate, he's well experienced in Westchester and the Hudson Valley and he's been extraordinarily helpful in planning for this storm. I want to thank the Senator very much. You'll hear from him after the County Executive. Michael Kopy who's our new Director of Emergency Management. His first week on the job. First storm. We wish him good luck or an early retirement. Just kidding. We have Major General Raymond Shields from the Division of Military and Naval Affairs. There are about 450 National Guard who are ready to be deployed if we need them. And we want to thank them very much. Acting Superintendent of the New York State Police Keith Corlett who will also be nominated to be the permanent Superintendent of the State Police, and John Rhodes, the Chairman of the Public eService Commission.

As everyone knows we have a significant weather event that is developing and we're in a transition area for that storm. It's more complex and more problematic than some storms that we've dealt with before for two main reasons. Number one, it is a snow event. Less snow in the southern part of the state, New York City, Westchester. More snow in the Hudson Valley. But that's combined with high winds and very low temperatures and a possibility of icing. And the ice is the most dangerous element of all. But snow, high winds, frigid temperatures, single digits, some forecasts say the wind chill could bring us below zero, and the possibility of icing. The mid-Hudson, the higher north you go, the more snow is expected. About 14 inches is forecast in the Upper Hudson Valley. It goes down to 1 - 3 inches in Westchester, New York City and the Long Island area. But as I mentioned, high winds are expected and frigid temperatures and possible icing. The icing is more probably on Long Island and in the Hudson Valley, but again we're dealing with forecasts and the forecasts aren't written in stone as we've learned time and time again. So we have that situation.

The other situation that compounds the overall storm is this is a statewide storm. It's a very large storm band that will come through the entire state and move up into New England. Normally extreme weather events tend to be isolated in parts of the state. One region or two regions. That allows us to deploy resources from other parts of the state to the affected area. So when we've had storms in Westchester and New York City, we literally will bring equipment from the North Country, from Buffalo, personnel to that affected region. This is literally the entire state. Starts in Buffalo and literally goes to the tip of Long Island. So we need statewide deployment.

Now we have increased our equipment, our capacity and personnel. Because we've had such a pattern of extreme weather. We have 5,000 personnel deployed. As I mentioned, another 450 National Guard will be ready to be deployed if we need them. There'll be about 3,000 pieces of equipment available. And we're coordinating very closely with in this case Westchester County, the other counties, New York City, emergency management. So everything is coordinated, but we don't have the advantage of being able to redeploy equipment across the state the way we normally would. We've done a tractor-trailer ban and a bus ban. One of the lessons we've learned the hard way is one tractor-trailer jackknifes on the highway and it backs up everything. So we did that ban, we put it in place. It's in place now. We notified trucking companies and bus companies a couple of days ago so they had notice about this ban so none of the trucks or buses will be caught unaware. As I mentioned, we're going to have to watch this storm. It starts with about 14 inches of snow in the higher parts of the Hudson Valley. Reduces down to New York City and Long Island. But this region is right in the ice band. We don't know if we'll have significant icing in Westchester, New York City or not. The ice as I mentioned before is the worst of these. And we've seen this before. Ice on tree limbs and tree branches, the branch breaks, it hits a power line, the power line comes down, and now you have the problem of the storm compounded by lack of power. And we've had too many situations where the lack of power has been unacceptably long. Where it's taken days if not weeks for the power companies to get the power back on.

We have John Rhodes with us who's in charge of the Public Service Commission. The Public Service Commission regulated public utilities. Public utilities are franchises, licenses of the State. And they have a duty and an obligation to the State. And they are on full notice and firm notice that I expect them to be ready to handle storms that we now expect to develop. A storm like we're talking about today in the past we didn't have these complex situations. In the past, in New York we never have hurricanes, you never had typhoons, the floods that we've seen. We now are in a different period of weather patterns. That's a fact. Extreme weather is a fact and we've been experiencing it. I expect the utilities to be ready to handle those storms and the aftermath of those storms. Have the equipment, have the personnel, have the expertise. Period. That's what is expected of them. I understand, this is a new challenge. But just the way State government understands it's a new challenge, and we upped our equipment and personnel, etc., we expect the same from the utility companies.

We have penalized them in the past, so I believe they have gotten the message. I've said to them if they are slow on managing this storm, the recovery of this storm, their licensing is not a God-given gift, it's granted by the people of the State of New York. So if they don't perform, they could potentially lose their license. We have been in contact with utility companies. They assure us that they are ready and they're fully staffed. They are already bringing in backup crews from other states just in case the icing situation develops and those other states have what is called a mutual aid agreement, have sent their utility trucks and crews to New York. So, we're doing everything we can on that level.

More than anything, we just have to watch what develops now. We rely on the forecast, prepare for the worst, but we hope for the best and we prepare for the worst. But you still don't know until the storm actually starts to develop. And when I say this is a transition region from the Mid-Hudson the storm changes as it comes down south and out on Long Island. The snow drops, the temperature gets somewhat better as you get towards New York City, but again the big question is where is the icing and how sever is the icing, and that's what would trigger the power delays, power outages, et cetera. We will have thousands of emergency personnel out. They will be working, they're working now, they'll be working all throughout the night, they'll be working all day tomorrow.

Unless you really have to be on the road, it is better if you are not on the road once this storm starts. Not just for your own personal safety but we're trying to get the plows and the trucks moving. If one person goes out and gets stuck, now someone has to go out and help that motorist and that puts someone else in the line of danger and it backs up the entire situation. So, if you don't have to go out, don't go out. Luckily it's the weekend; it's a holiday weekend for many. People don't have to go to work, so especially with the frigid temperatures be very careful. If you get into a minus 5-degree with the wind chill, minus 10 that is a health and safety concern. It's not the weather where the children should go out and play. You can get hypothermia very quickly. So, it is a serious situation and if we all work together we will make the best of it.

We've been through worse than this, we've done all the preparation. So, we'll see what Mother Nature actually has in store for us, but she's thrown us a few curve balls over the past few years and we've handled it fine, and we'll handle this one fine also. With that, let me turn it over to the County Executive, and again I want to thank County Executive Latimer and Senator Harckham for their work over these past few days. One thing we've learned it's all in the preparation for a storm. By the time storm hits, if you try to get ready for the storm once it hits it's too late. You have to have everything done and planned and in place and coordinated before, and we've been working on this for days. Many people have spent many hours on conference calls, but we are well prepared as we could be and I want to applaud the Senator and the County Executive for that.