Thanksgiving Becomes A Dig-Out Day Following Snowstorm
WARWICK, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Some Tri-State Area residents spent much of Thanksgiving Day digging out, after a nor'easter Wednesday buried some areas in 10 inches of snow.
As CBS2's Ilana Gold reported, Joe Negron spent hours digging out on Crescent Avenue in Warwick, Orange County. The town was among those that saw 10 inches.
"Not quite what I had planned," Negron said.
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But digging out was the least of his worries.
"The real problem is that we don't have power," he said. "We have a nice dinner all planned, and now plans have changed."
His family was in the dark. They were trying to salvage the turkey and the rest of the uncooked holiday meal, and then bring it to his mother's place a few blocks away.
It was less than ideal, to say the least, Negron said.
"My mother has a cramped one bedroom apartment," he said.
As of around 3 p.m., the Orange and Rockland power company reported about 4,600 customers without power – most of them in Orange and Sullivan counties. It was even worse for Jersey Central Power and Light, which reported nearly 11,300 customers without power – most in Morris, Passaic and Sussex counties in New Jersey.
Connecticut Power and Light reported 1,000 outages statewide. Con Edison, Public Service Electric and Gas in New Jersey, and PSEG Long Island each reported a small number of outages.
And other problems were widespread across Orange and Rockland counties after the storm.
The snow was so wet and heavy that it was too much for a lot of the trees to take. On Homestead Village Drive alone, there were about a half dozen trees that had snapped and fallen right into the middle of the street.
"There's a few across the road, but people are cautious and driving around them," a resident said.
Driving around posed a major challenge for those who were snowed in.
"A lot of snow -- we probably got close to a foot," said Nick Devries of Warwick.
Devries had to clear nearly a foot of snow off his car. But he was determined to head to Pennsylvania to see his parents.
"Roads are plowed, so we should be good," he said.
And at a shopping center on Route 94, about a half-dozen cars were buried in snow Thursday morning. Also, plows came through overnight, leaving giant mounds of snow in the parking lot.
West Milford, New Jersey, also got 10 inches of snow, CBS2's Alex Denis reported. Crews there were out plowing and salting streets Thursday morning.
Gov. Chris Christie declared a state of emergency Wednesday as travelers took to highways and airports for their Thanksgiving getaways.
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