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Whiteout conditions prompt crashes, travel ban in Tupper Lake

Gusts coming off Raquette Pond whip snow across Demars Boulevard (state Route 3) Monday morning, causing several cars to slide into snow banks before noon. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

TUPPER LAKE — Severe whiteout conditions on major roads led to several car accidents and prompted this village and town to issue a declaration of emergency on Monday.

Tupper Lake emergency manager Carl Steffan said on Monday that with the wind and snow reducing visibility, people should stay home unless it is absolutely necessary to travel. He said that outside of a life-and-death emergency, people should call the town or village for help through the storm.

The declaration was cancelled for the village and town of Tupper Lake effective at 7:30 p.m. Monday night, according to Village Clerk Mary Casagrain.

Tupper Lake Central School District Superintendent Seth McGowan said on Monday he expected the declaration to be lifted by Tuesday and that school is set to start as normal — and it did.

A pickup truck drives into thick snow blowing across Demars Boulevard (state Route 3) on Monday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

Blind driving

Tupper Lake’s main veins of travel — state Route 3 on the shore of Raquette Pond and state Route 30 over the Moody Flow causeway, which separates Simond Pond from Tupper Lake — both had debilitating visibility Monday. The Demars Boulevard portion of Route 3 had five cars crash into snowbanks before noon. The Moody Flow had multiple accidents, two of which involved rear-ending.

Village fire and police departments closed both lanes of the boulevard from 8:30 a.m. to 11:20 and both lanes of the flow for an hour, starting around 9:30 a.m.

Tupper Lake Volunteer Fire Department Chief Royce Cole said visibility was nonexistent at the flow at that time.

“You couldn’t see your hand in front of your face,” Cole said.

A truck’s headlights shine through the thick snow on state Route 30 at the Moody Flow causeway. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

State Trooper Alex Stuart said he responded to one car that slid off the road in Piercefield, and Steffan said another car slid off the road on Route 28N in Long Lake.

All reported that no one was hurt in any of the crashes.

Several towing companies in Tupper Lake said they stay busy on days like this.

“Pretty much all I do is tow,” Marc Counter of Counter’s Garage & Towing said.

Steffan is both the village and town’s emergency manager. After meeting with village Mayor Paul Maroun and town Supervisor Patti Littlefield at 11:30 a.m., both municipalities issued a joint emergency declaration, advising residents to refrain from road travel. Steffan, Maroun and Littlefield met again at 4 p.m. and decided to maintain the declaration.

Schools were closed Monday

Saranac Lake, Tupper Lake, Lake Placid and Clifton-Fine schools closed Monday, including private schools that share schedules with the public school districts. North Country Community College canceled classes as well. Paul Smith’s College remained open, as did the Keene and AuSable Valley school districts.

The Saranac Lake Adult Center and Tupper Lake Health Center both closed as well.

The public school districts in Long Lake and Saranac were on a two-hour delay.

Not since 2012

Steffan, who spend years organizing and teaching emergency management systems for the state, has been doing emergency management with the town since 2001 and has only issued four or five winter declarations like this before. The last emergency declaration in Tupper Lake was in 2012 for flooding that lasted several days, covering Demars Boulevard, several Junction neighborhoods, River Road and the Moody Flow.

The state Mesonet station in Tupper Lake measured wind speeds in the teens and 20 mph with gusts in the 20s and 30s all day long. The biggest gust came a 7:30 a.m. and was measured at 44.7 miles per hour.

Village electrical department Superintendent Marc Staves said there were no major power outages as of 3 p.m. in Tupper Lake, and that only a couple of fuses blew at the village office.

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