Southeastern Connecticut slammed by first blizzard of 2022
Jan. 29—Southeastern Connecticut bore the brunt of the first blizzard of 2022.
Gary Lessor, chief meteorologist with the Western Connecticut State University Weather Center, confirmed the storm reached blizzard status in the New London area about 9 a.m. Saturday and said it wasn't expected to move out until roughly 9 that night.
There were 21.5 inches of accumulation reported in Groton and 17.3 inches in Ledyard as of 4 p.m., according to Lessor. He anticipated another 2 to 4 inches before the end of the storm.
Lessor described it as the biggest snow event in about five years. The blizzard of 2017 dumped over a foot of snow in the state, including 19 inches in East Hartford.
To qualify as a blizzard, the National Weather Service says there must be winds of more than 35 mph for at least three hours and less than a quarter mile of visibility. The windiest conditions were reported in New London, where gusts of 65 mph battered the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Gusts reached 57 mph in Stonington and 46 mph in Groton, according to Lessor.
The meteorologist said Cape Cod was "getting bombed" with gusts that reached hurricane force in places like West Dennis and Rockport.
Gov. Ned Lamont in a virtual news conference had urged drivers to stay off the roads until the "wicked New England storm" moved out.
Later, he announced a highway tractor-trailer travel ban he enacted at 3 a.m. would be lifted at 11:59 p.m. Saturday. "While the storm appears to be subsiding, the roads remain slick, and we continue to strongly urge everyone to stay off the roads if they can while the plow crews work to clear them," he said in an evening news release.
Lamont said the powdery snow was not as much of a burden on trees and power lines as it could have been, which helped keep the number of outages down. The Eversource Energy outage map identified 230 outages as of 5 p.m. Saturday, none of them in New London County.
About 50 Norwich Public Utilities customers lost power Saturday afternoon when a city plow struck a utility pole on Plain Hill Road in the area of Farm View Drive. Police said there were minor injuries to the crew. Plain Hill Road was closed to traffic from the Stott Avenue intersection to White Plains Road, as utility crews worked to repair the pole and restore power.
Power was back by late Saturday afternoon for all but 13 customers impacted by the crash. NPU was awaiting a Frontier crew to remove the pole so utility crews could complete the repairs and restore power to all customers, NPU spokesman Chris Riley said.
Around 3:40 a.m., police and fire officials responded to reports of a snowplow on fire on Julian Terrace in Norwich, according to police. The plow was engulfed in huge flames on the snow-covered road. No injuries were reported in that incident.
Plow problems also were evident in Ledyard, where Mayor Fred Allyn III said two trucks were out of commission Saturday — one because of mechanical failure, and one due to a rollover accident on Rose Hill Road. He posted to Facebook asking for people's patience.
State police said there were four crashes on Interstate 95 in Old Lyme over a two-hour period Saturday morning. One rollover crash on the northbound side closed the highway from about 8:19 until 10:14 a.m. There were no injuries in that crash or two others, according to state police. Minor injuries were reported in a three-vehicle collision called in at 9:47 a.m. and cleared by 10:30 a.m., state police said.
At 2:51 p.m., radar showed one last band of heavy snow extending from near Voluntown south to Mystic and across Long Island Sound, but this was slowly weakening, NWS said in a special weather statement. The band still was able to produce up to 2 inches of snow per hour.
The Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection projected snow would taper off in eastern Connecticut by 11 p.m. Saturday, and the region would end up with a total of 18 to 24 inches.
Snow in Groton City was still coming down between 1 inch and 2 inches an hour around 5 p.m., city Mayor Keith Hedrick said.
"It's still affecting visibility," he said. "We're asking people to stay off the roads. The parking ban is still in effect. We have towed 15 cars through the parking ban. We are continuing to plow roads." He said crews are trying to keep roads as clear as they could, but with the rate of the snow, it was a challenge. The focus has been on the main roads and thoroughfares, so first responders can get through.
Depending on what time the snow ends and how much is cleared, crews were expected to continue working into the night, take a break and come back Sunday or finish up Monday in terms of clearing edges and pushing back some snow, Hedrick said. He said the crews had been up for a long time, so their safety was the top concern.
There were no outages in Groton Utilities' or Bozrah Light & Power's areas, he said.
Groton Town Manager John Burt said the public works department was reporting that all roads were passable but messy, with lots of snow drifting. Emergency dispatch and Eversource also were not reporting any issues as of late Saturday afternoon.
In Stonington, First Selectwoman Danielle Chesebrough said early Saturday night that the town's emergency operations center at the police station would close at 7 p.m. Saturday after being open for about 24 hours. She said the town had two small power outages during the day, including one caused by a downed power line in the Wequetequock section of town, but service was quickly restored.
"Everything went pretty well," she said.
Chesebrough continued to urge residents to stay off the roads on Sunday to allow highway crews to clear roads of the almost 2 feet of snow. She said highway department staff would be getting some sleep Saturday night but be back to work Sunday.
All vehicles must stay off town roads during the cleanup or be subject to fines and towing. In the borough all vehicles must be off Water Street, though parking is allowed on the even-numbered side of Main and Elm streets, on Sunday.
Chesebrough said the town's municipal transfer station will be closed Sunday.
Day Staff Writers Claire Bessette, Erica Moser and Joe Wojtas contributed to this report.
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