More Snow Means More Shoveling for East Meadow

With the still fresh in many people’s memories, East Meadow residents got an early start to their day in anticipation of the tough conditions. The storm, which barreled up the east coast late Tuesday night to early Wednesday morning, dumped approximately a foot of snow in the area.

“This is what I expected. I took the day off today and it is not as bad as I thought,” East Meadow resident George Ninesling said. “I’m digging out and then I will just go about my day.”

The National Weather Service still has their winter storm warning in effect until 6:00 p.m. this evening. Even with this precautionary measure in effect, many locals realize that this storm is nowhere near the level of the “Christmas Weekend” blizzard.

“I have to dig everything out,” said Denise Bermudez as she was shoveling her car out on Central Drive South. “My brother was able to get out for work at six in the morning. It’s not as bad as what I thought it would be.”

Bermudez explained that she thought the town did a better job cleaning up the road, but “we had much more last time.”

As of 8 a.m. on Wednesday morning, most of the roads, whether county or town, seemed to have been plowed or salted at least once. Plows were out in full force making sure that all of the roads were cleared to the best of their capabilities to avoid the disaster of the previous snowstorm.

East Meadow resident Sam Moss explained that you have to deal with the plowing situation because “it is what it is and they’re not god.”

“I love snow, I hate shoveling,” Moss said. “I work out of the house, but I was supposed to have an appointment today.”

Though East Meadow School District for Wednesday on Tuesday night, many parents and other residents still had to make their way to work. Most were aware of the fact that Nassau County and the Town of Hempstead were working extra hard to make sure that the roads were usable for the morning rush hour.

“They were here a couple of times already, sanding and plowing,” said Robert Cirino outside of his home on Longfellow Drive. “I guess they will come one more time and plow.”

Cirino was supposed to leave to drive down to Florida Wednesday morning and had to delay his plans due to the weather. He thinks that the roads will be fine driving down south on Thursday.

Ray O’Leary, an East Meadow local and owner of a welding fabrication business in Hicksville, said that the snow was not letting him get to work, but he would be open later.

“My employees will get there later, not right away,” O’Leary said. “The roads weren’t plowed as wide as I expected. We did get the cars out of the street for them and they didn’t really get up to the curb, but they came by.”

Though the last snowstorm brought business in East Meadow to almost a complete halt, owners were aware that the snowstorm will definitely not have a positive impact on the business for the day.

Carl Oberle, owner of Oberle’s Florist on East Meadow Avenue, explained that he expected business to be extremely slow on Wednesday, probably only receiving call in orders. He  said that he had “the fellows coming in to shovel out.”

“I think this is a little easier, it is lighter than the last storm,” Oberle said. “There was a lot more last time.”

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