Mayor: Snow Shoveling Sparks Heart Attack Calls

While Saturday morning's accumulation of snow may look picture perfect, Greenport Village Mayor David Nyce warns that shoveling could prove dangerous.

According to Nyce, the snow is "really deceptive." The top six inches or so are "light and fluffy," but what's below is wet and very heavy, due to Friday night's snow having been interspersed with periods of freezing rain.

"It's like shoveling water, and it's really heavy," Nyce said. "We've had a few reports of rescue calls from people who are having heart attacks."

Nyce cautioned, "It's important that people take it really slow."

Greenport, the mayor said, emerged from Friday's pummeling blizzard relatively unscathed.

"We did all right," he said. "We had a few minor power outages but we made it through," with power and sewer systems fine. All town road, lights and sewer crews worked through the night, with the road crews spending Saturday morning "trying to catch up to this extreme snowfall," Nyce said.

He added that no downed power lines or trees have been reported.

Unlike in years' past, snow accumulation is no longer dumped into the Greenport harbor, Nyce said. 

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation no longer allows the practice out of concerns over ice melt and other chemicals being deposited in the waterways after the Clean Water Act, Nyce said. 

Instead, the first step is to get the roads cleared and then, sometime late Sunday or Monday morning, bucket loaders and trucks will take the massive accumulation of snow to be deposited up on Moore's Lane, Nyce said.

The mayor commended town staff for handling the blizzard and ensuring the safety of residents. "They did a fantastic job," he said. "As sloppy as it was last night, the reports I'm getting say that the roads were still passable."

Nyce urged residents to check up on their elderly neighbors. "Make sure they have what they need and can get out," he said.