Hochul to hold briefing on upcoming winter storm expected to bring 1' or more of snow

Posted: Mar 13, 2023 / 11:10 AM EDT

Updated: Mar 14, 2023 / 08:05 AM EDT

Editor’s note: Hochul’s remarks were live-streamed on this page at approximately 11:45 a.m. A full press conference will be available shortly.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — “Stay home tomorrow” was NY Governor Kathy Hochul’s main message to eastern and central New York Monday. The developing nor’easter will bring anything from a few inches to more than a foot for many areas — hitting hardest the furthest east.

For those in the Western New York, many people will not experience extremely severe weather. But there is still a moderate winter weather advisory in place for Monroe and surrounding counties. Some further east do have severe warnings in place.

Governor Hochul spoke on what she called the “epic event” outside of the Department of Transportation Garage in Albany. She stood alongside leaders from around the area to talk about the state’s preparedness, and to encourage New Yorkers to help the response teams by staying off the roads.

Anticipating losses of power and rough roads for most of Tuesday, Hochul encouraged New Yorkers to prepare today, instead of tomorrow.

“There’s no reason in the world to have plans to be out tomorrow,” Hochul said. Utility trucks, national guard, and other responders are getting ready and in place Monday, she said, to be ready to go once the weather starts getting bad. The DOT and other organizations have been preparing over the past few days, local leaders said.

To help amplify the message of staying home and preparing, a State of Emergency will go into effect at 8 p.m. Monday evening.

“We’re no strangers to snow here,” Hochul said about those living upstate and in central NY. “But we also want to make sure that complacency doesn’t sit in. That is our biggest fear.”

She added that the weather will definitely cause some to lose power. To prepare for this, she encouraged residents to stock up on batteries and other supplies today, and ensure they have a plan to keep warm and keep calm in the event of a power outage.

“When you have snow that’s 50 percent heavier than normal — this is not the light, fluffy, pretty Christmas snow,” Hochul said. “This is gonna come down like a brick. And it is that weight that causes a problem.”

Areas getting one-and-a-half feet of snow will experience outages as if they’d gotten three feet, due to this weight, she explained. Given these conditions, those that lose power may have to wait a few days to get it restored, as the storm will continue into Wednesday morning for some regions.

For Rochester, it’s been a fairly green winter most of the season. But for areas such as Buffalo, this winter has already proved fatal.

In the Greater Rochester Area the following counties have a severe winter storm warning in effect: