January 14, 2024
Albany, NY

Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Updates New Yorkers on Extreme Weather and Western New York Travel Bans

Governor Hochul: “We're announcing now that at about 3:30, we'll be lifting the travel bans in the Northtowns, but only in these communities: Grand Island, Tonawanda, Amherst, Clarence and Newstead. Again, a travel advisory remains in effect. This does not mean you can leave these towns and go to other towns that are still in the area of the ban.”

Hochul: “No one should be on the Thruway. And again, no other roads are open outside those southeastern towns in Erie County and those northern communities will be opened at 3:30 today… It’s not about unnecessary restrictions. It's about keeping New Yorkers safe and allowing first responders and ambulances, utility crews to respond.”

Earlier today, Governor Hochul updated New Yorkers on the extreme weather and Western New York travel bans.

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:

When I opened my storm briefing yesterday afternoon, I said my highest priority as the Governor of the State of New York is to protect the public and their safety. Thanks to my amazing partners in this room, starting with our County Executive Mark Poloncarz, and our Mayor of the City of Buffalo Byron Brown. We have worked in incredible coordination with one single mission, that is to make sure that Western New Yorkers are protected during the duration of this storm.

I also want to thank the thousands of State, County, and City workers who put themselves out on the line during very hazardous conditions to keep the roads clear, to do the pre-salting, our law enforcement who are enforcing our travel bans. And let's remember all those and the countless people who are monitoring data as it's coming in and giving us real time information. Again, with the objective of keeping Western New Yorkers safe.

And I also know that we all have our favorite teams, right, Mayor? That's right. And my favorite team is the team that I brought here from Albany, and that is the Dream Team, who are so expert in dealing with storm response. And I want to thank Commissioner Jackie Bray from Homeland Services; Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez, DOT Commissioner; Director of the Thruway Authority Frank Hoare; Commissioner Rory Christian from the Department of Public Service; and Colonel Dan Cooney from the State Police.

Now, we all know as Western Yorkers how dangerous the triple threat is – the triple threat of icy cold temperature, with high winds and the blowing snow and how dangerous that all can be. It's life threatening weather. That's exactly what's going on now in the vicinity of where there would have been a football game playing today in Orchard Park and overall throughout the Southtowns.

So, we've been working closely together, and I would say that the forecast of this storm really underestimated the ferocity of this storm. Number one, the volume of snow was predicted to be one to two inches an hour, which is a lot of snow over a 36 to 40-hour period. But what we've seen since this morning, that the snow bands are staying longer, they're broader, and also we're now seeing in real time four to five, possibly six inches an hour in the Southtowns in particular.

What we're expecting now over the next couple of hours, the Southtowns between now and 5 p.m., that same rate of snow falling three, four, five, six inches an hour. Again, more intense than previously thought.

Wind gusts were predicted to be 35 to 40 miles an hour. They are now gusting up to 50 miles an hour. What that means: whiteout conditions, limited or no visibility and again, very dangerous on our roads. After 5 o'clock, the conditions in the Southtowns will be a little bit better, but still can be very hazardous, with snowfall rates of one to three inches an hour. Still coming down, and still blowing.

And it still makes it very difficult for our State and County and City plows to do their jobs. The lake effect snow affects each community differently. We saw this afternoon in the North Country as well. We saw widespread four to eight inches. The Northtown – I'm not talking about the Northtown, I'm talking about the North Country.

The North Country up near, in Jefferson County and Watertown, which we're watching very closely. They're expecting at least another foot of snow tonight. Again, a lot of wind blowing at intense rates as well. So, we're closely communicating with those individuals as well.

Now, as you heard earlier, improvements in Erie County allowed us in consultation with the County Executive who determined that we could lift the ban in certain towns in the southeast part of Erie County. That was lifted at 9 a.m. today.

We're announcing now that at about 3:30, we'll be lifting the travel bans in the Northtowns, but only in these communities: Grand Island, Tonawanda, Amherst, Clarence and Newstead. Again, a travel advisory remains in effect. This does not mean you can leave these towns and go to other towns that are still in the area of the ban.

So, we're going to be very intentional about making sure those bans are still enforced. And we'll make sure that – we don't want a ban in place a single minute longer than necessary, but we can never let it be one minute too short either.

I know they're disruptive. I know they're frustrating. And that's why we're trying to be targeted in our approach opening up some of the communities that are not as affected, but being very conscientious about the fact that there are still many high impact towns that are being affected at this very moment, and it is too dangerous to lift the bans at those times, or on the New York State Thruway overall.

So, I will be updating Western New Yorkers again around 7 o'clock today on what's going on regarding any bans for the rest of Erie County and the City of Buffalo. The Mayor and I are talking about what he wants to do with the City in a couple of hours.

Again, this time also allows the crews to do their jobs so people aren't stuck on side streets, which is important so that'll continue.

Now, enforcement. You do not want to have to get a ticket and deal with this later. So the best advice is follow the bans, stay at home for whatever time is deemed necessary. Again, it'll be as minimal as necessary.

State Troopers have already issued over 360 tickets primarily on the New York State Thruway, which continues to be a place where people are violating the bans. And I want to give another message out to the truck drivers, including the one that, within the last hour, violated the ban – came through the Lackawanna toll barrier, jackknifed, as could be predicted, and blocked lanes of traffic, three lanes of traffic, for at least a half an hour. That's what we're trying to avoid.

This is what we've seen in every other storm. This is where people get stranded. This is where people can freeze in their cars. And while we've had very few incidences of this, because we preemptively shut down the Thruway and got the warnings out and the bans, a single incidence like this, of someone violating the rules and the ban, can cause a real problem.

And again, for our first responders to be taken off their jobs and have to go dig out a truck who should never should have been on the road in the first place, is frustrating. No one should be on the Thruway. And again, no other roads are open outside those southeastern towns in Erie County and those northern communities will be opened at 3:30 today.

So again, it's not about unnecessary restrictions. It's about keeping New Yorkers safe and allowing first responders and ambulances, utility crews to respond. Now, speaking about utility crews, you talk about the lessons of the past. We've always tried to get as many utility crews prepositioned before a storm hits so they can build up resiliency and understand the vulnerabilities, areas that could be most likely to lose power.

I'm really, really proud. And I want to thank Rory Christian, the head of the Public Service Commission, who is on the ground with us here today for his work and working with utilities. At any given time, we had thousands without power, but very quickly restored within just a couple of hours. And as someone who's lived through sometimes days and days without power at home with little kids in Hamburg not that long ago, we know how important it is to get the power restored, and I'm really grateful for them that there's only about 100 people now without power here.

Same with the North Country up in Jefferson County. Large, wide scale power outages, mostly restored, and now where we're seeing power outages are because of snow squalls that have now hit Central New York, the Southern Tier and the Capital Region. So that's what we're dealing with now.

We have about 12,000 power outages there. We did have crews prepositioned in those regions as well, so they're doing their work now. The storm is not over. It could have been far worse. But it's still not a safe condition to go out. So we want to make sure people continue staying home just a few more hours and we'll be through the snow.

Now, I do want to say this. I know there's a lot of excitement around tomorrow's game, and you know we could not risk the safety of our fans and the personnel at the stadium and all of our first responders and law enforcement because of the triple threat, where you get the high winds, you get the bitter cold, and the blowing snow.

Now at game time on Monday, here's what we expect. Weather conditions will be very cold, they'll be in the teens. And even wind chill factors as low as zero maybe to nine degrees, but that's going to be very, very cold. But this will be without the danger of the winds and the blinding snow and the hazardous traffic conditions for those as they travel to the stadium or leaving, based on current predictions.

So that is a better dynamic than, by far better dynamic, than we would have had today. I'm not saying it's going to be pleasant, but conditions won't be life threatening either. Just as a note, Monday will be the 30th anniversary of what was the coldest football game ever played in Buffalo Bills history here in Western New York.

It was zero with wind chills reaching minus 32. If you start feeling cold, think back about the people who were there 30 years ago, and it was a lot colder. And remember, that resulted in a win that led us to the Super Bowl. There's good karma playing in the bitter cold here in Buffalo, and that's what we're hoping for tomorrow.

With that, go Bills. Thank you, Western New Yorkers, for listening to us. We would not have gotten through this the way we did at this point, so please continue to heed our warnings. Thanks for your cooperation, and again, look forward to seeing you on the other side of a big win tomorrow night.

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