A State of Emergency and travel advisory in Erie County continue to be in effect due to a second round of lake effect snow expected to hit the area Wednesday morning.
1-2 feet of lake effect snow is expected to fall in the region. Some localized accumulations could reach 3 feet.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz a driving ban could be issued if conditions worsen.
“It's not just so that we can clear roads, people think we put a driving ban in there just to make their lives miserable, so we can get out there and clear roads, that is not the case,” he said. “A driving ban is put in place because it is too dangerous. And that we do it to protect the safety of the public. And it is not done lightly. I do not want to have to put a driving ban in effect unless I have to. And that's what we're looking at with regards to this upcoming storm, is that it does not appear it will be sufficient enough at least immediately, to issue a driving ban countywide. But it may require it for a particular municipality and then that decision is made in consultation with the municipality. One other thing though, every municipality leader, supervisor for towns and mayors for cities and villages have the power to declare their own state of emergency and put in effect their own driving ban.”
Polocarz is also strongly encouraging employers to have their non-essential employees work from home Wednesday and Thursday.
“This reminds me of the old Bethlehem Steel days where they had to have someone there to ensure the basic oxygen furnaces continued because if they shut them down they’d break,” he said. “In a driving ban situation in a snowstorm the tier-one employees so to speak, are the only ones that are really authorized to drive and those are Public Works. That includes sewers and water, as well as the plow drivers and all the emergency services; law enforcement, all those regarding life saving like hospitals and nursing homes where they have to have staff there otherwise people can die.”
And Poloncarz says there is a distinction between essential and non-essential workers.
“Your Tim Hortons is not essential,” he said. “Your Amazon is not essential. Your Joe's Manufacturing site is not essential. If they need to have an engineer or somebody there so that the place doesn't break down. We understand that and that's why they need to reach out to emergency services. We had some requests from employees that worked for Tim Hortons, saying they were told they had to come in because they're essential and Hortons is not essential. I know people want their cup of coffee. But when a driving ban is happening, and snow is falling had three to five inches an hour, people don't need to get to work to work at a Tim Hortons.”
More information on storm preparedness can be found on the county website.
