Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Declares State of Emergency Ahead of Potentially Dangerous and Life-Threatening Blizzard-Like Conditions Along Lake Erie and Lake Ontario

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul declared a State of Emergency ahead of potentially dangerous and life-threatening blizzard-like conditions forecasted to impact communities along Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Areas adjacent to both lakes are forecast to be impacted by strong winds with gusts up to 70 mph that will likely cause power outages, freezing cold wind chills, and lake effect snow with a foot or more possible in some areas. Blizzard-like, whiteout conditions are possible, especially Saturday night and much of Sunday, and wind chills are forecast to dip into the single digits on Saturday night and remain there through mid-week. Lake effect snow is expected for both Lakes Erie and Ontario starting Saturday afternoon and continuing through Monday morning, with areas in Western NY and the Watertown area receiving up to a foot of snow. Travel in these areas will be difficult to impossible at times, and New Yorkers are urged to pay close attention to the weather and make plans accordingly to stay safe, especially those planning to attend Sunday’s Buffalo Bills’ game. New Yorkers are being encouraged to enjoy the game from home, however if they are planning to attend the game, they should travel with extreme caution and pay very close attention to weather and travel updates throughout the weekend.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.

PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

We all know the saying, “When it rains, it pours.” Well, this week it rained, it poured, it's snowing, we'll have strong gusts of wind at more than 70 miles an hour, so we are getting the entire kitchen sink today. Once again, New York is heading into a weekend with a severe statewide weather event, and I'm proud to be joined by the best in the country to deal with storms and any crisis that comes our way, my Storm Dream Team. Many of them over Zoom because they're already pre-positioned in various parts of the state, getting ready for the big weekend.

Commissioner Jackie Bray, Commissioner of Homeland Security and Emergency Services; Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez, Department of Transportation; Frank Hoare, our Thruway Director; and Commissioner Basil Seggos, Department of Environmental Conservation; and Commissioner Rory Christian, Department of Public Service.

Again, this will be a statewide weather event, with different impacts depending on which part of the state you're in. Let me start with the more immediate impacts of the eastern part of New York, beginning at 6 p.m. tonight through Saturday. What we're projecting is right now heavy rains coming through the Hudson Valley again, and very concerning winds and additional coastal flooding along the hard-hit, already battered Long Island shoreline.

It will not be as much rainfall as earlier this week, but the low-lying areas near the rivers and the coastal areas that are already flood prone and dealing with floods are going to be vulnerable once again. So again, drivers, take precautions. Heed the warnings. This is not a good time to be on the roads because the ground is saturated, and what that does is even if it's only a few inches of rain, it can have a significant impact on corroding bridges roads and making the situation dangerous. We've been working around the clock to recover from the last storm earlier this week before the one that is unfolding right now, and many of our personnel, fortunately, are pre-positioned for this next storm as well.

With respect to Long Island, I've been in close contact again with County Executive of Suffolk County, Ed Romaine, and all the local leaders on Long Island. My team's been very engaged with them. Yesterday, I issued a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers calling on them to take a greater role in the recovery process. So, what we're concerned about tonight and tomorrow morning is that, and now our attention turns to Western New York and the North Country, which are bracing for a classic lake effect snowstorm starting mid Saturday.

In anticipation of that storm, we need to pre-deploy equipment and have contracts in place and I'm calling up the National Guard. I'll be declaring a State of Emergency for Western New York. We're monitoring the forecast as well to see whether that will be necessary for the North Country. We're expecting Jefferson County, the Watertown area to be hit, but we're watching that closely. Again, this allows us to contract for suppliers, get people pre-positioned, get all the materials we need on the ground and the National Guard, I've already called up, will be positioned starting early tomorrow morning.

Because we are expecting very serious whiteout, blizzard-like conditions, and the forecast of 20 inches may not sound like a lot to Western New Yorkers, but it could be falling at a heavy rate of two to three inches an hour. It'll affect visibility, blizzard-like conditions and the high winds, as locals know, and I certainly know this, it can create very dangerous situations with downed tree limbs, and you can't see a downed power line on the road, and it becomes very treacherous.

So also, we're concerned about safety on our roads, making sure that the thruway is free and clear. State roads are clear, and what I'm calling for is, beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday morning, is a ban on tandem trucks and empty tractor trailers all the way from the Rochester area, exit [46], to the Pennsylvania line. Again, we've seen from past storms, we're always learning lessons that if these tractor trailers overturn, it can jam up the traffic, leaving people in freezing cold weather vulnerable and we want to make sure that we prevent that. So, we're getting the warning out early so all the truckers and truckers associations can get the word out as well. And that will be in place for the duration of the storm. And we may be having to add additional travel bans, but not at this time. So, please stay tuned for additional guidance on closures and anything else we're talking about.

Storm preparation, that's what we talk about all the time here. They've been working all week to be prepared for the cleanup from the past storm, the imminent storm and the storm we're predicting later tomorrow in Western New York, so they're ready. Our emergency operation centers are already activated. They've been fully staffed since Wednesday, so we're keeping an eye on Monitoring the situation.

And just minutes ago I just received the most up to date forecast from our New York State, state-of-the-art State Weather Risk Communication Center. And again, we've talked about this technology. It is incredibly precise, and we're really excited about being able to deploy that data in real time to help us manage the storm. We'll also be using cell phone alerts to notify New Yorkers about weather alerts, road closures or other urgent concerns. As I mentioned yesterday, I've activated the National Guard; it takes a little bit of time for them to be in place and they'll all be in place tomorrow morning before the heavy snows start hitting Western New York.

One hundred members will be on their way to Western New York with 25 vehicles. Utility crews, already here. 11,000 crew members ready to restore power wherever it comes down. Actually 5,500 are already in Western New York as we speak, we'll be adding more as necessary. And we're going to continue talking about how we can keep it safe. Warming shelters are being set up. I know the City of Buffalo is doing one. We're going to have State-run centers as well. And again, what I've appreciated from New Yorkers, so many times we've given out these early warnings when the sun may be shining, and it doesn't look bad. This is when you stock up on the groceries, get all the fixings for the chicken wings for your Sunday game, whatever you need to do, get them now so you're not caught with having to go out there during bad weather conditions.

As we've seen has happened so many times, people get trapped in their cars, whether it's the flooding, whether it's the heavy snowstorms, please don't go on the roads overnight. We're trying to get the salters out – you'll be hearing from our Commissioner of DOT, trying to get the salters out – get the roads ready, so they can be as safe as can be.

Check in on vulnerable friends and family. In fact, invite them over for a sleepover and have a slumber party and get ready for some pregaming as well. And it's going to be bitter cold. Bitter, bitter, bitter cold. Wind chills in the single digits; we haven't had a lot of that this winter, so we're not as accustomed as we are other years. So, do whatever you can to stay safe and warm.

And for my fellow Buffalo Bills fans, here's the advice. If you have tickets to the game, listen to the forecast. Drive safely back and forth. We don't anticipate changes right now, but stay tuned because the weather, Mother Nature is wildly unpredictable. If you don't have a ticket, you just want to come out and have some fun, this might be a better day just to sit home and, you know, open up the – bring out the six pack, as been advised by leaders in the past, and watch the game from home. It'd be a lot safer and a lot warmer for sure and allow us to clear the roads easier when there's fewer people traveling on them.

So, right now, we're in regular communications with the County. I just spoke to County Executive Mark Poloncarz. I have communication with the NFL. We're talking to Bill's security regarding preparations for the game, making sure we're doing everything in our power to keep people safe for the game.

With that, I'd like to turn it over to Commissioner Bray for any additional details.