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Snowstorm causes some outages, school closures — and more coming today

Saranac Lake Fire Driver Rick Yorkey finishes clearing snow off his pickup truck Friday morning after an overnight shift at the firehouse. (Enterprise photo — Peter Crowley)

LAKE PLACID — Customers walking into the Starbucks on Main Street Friday afternoon were met with a peculiar sight. Half of the coffee shop was lit; half was in the dark.

A snowstorm swept through northern New York this week, downing power lines and causing an interruption of service for many customers throughout the Adirondacks.

By 8:30 p.m. Friday, roughly 11 inches of snow was measured in Saranac Lake, but it was hard to tell how much had fallen since it began Thursday. Meanwhile, it’s expected to continue snowing here with up to 5 inches of additional lake-effect snow accumulation. The National Weather Service in Burlington, Vermont, on Friday extended a winter weather advisory for southern Franklin County and western Essex County until 5 a.m. today.

The Lake Placid Municipal Electric department handled two calls Thursday: one in which the customer’s power never went out, the other saw 10 customers without power for about 45 minutes, according to Electrical Superintendent Kimball Daby. On Friday, there was one report the department dealt with at 2490 Main St., which houses Starbucks, Upstairs Grill Steak & Seafood and Hershel’s Delicatessen. According to Daby, only part of the building experienced a power outage because the building operates on three-phase power and only one phase was down.

The Lake Placid, Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake school districts canceled classes Friday, as did North Country Community College. The Keene and AuSable Valley school districts and Paul Smith’s College all remained open. There were a few reports of car collisions, crashes and disabled vehicles in the area, but no injuries had been reported as of Friday evening.

Saranac Lake Fire Driver Charlie Duprey uses a tractor to plow snow in front of the firehouse on Broadway Friday morning. (Enterprise photo — Peter Crowley)

There were no power outages reported in Tupper Lake as of 3 p.m. Friday. There was one National Grid outage in the town of Brighton as of Friday evening, impacting service for fewer than five customers. There were no reported New York State Electric & Gas outages in the Adirondack Park as of Friday evening.

Service for 105 National Grid customers in the towns of Franklin, Saranac and St. Armand was affected by the wind and snowfall Thursday afternoon, according to the company’s website. Service for more than 251 National Grid customers in Long Lake and Webb, and at least nine customers in Malone, was affected.

Service for 29 New York State Electric & Gas customers was also affected in Long Lake Thursday afternoon, according to the NYSEG website.

The two utility companies collectively dealt with roughly 4,000 power outages in Johnsburg and eastern Washington County Thursday, the Glens Falls Post-Star reported.

Northwest New York towns got the brunt of the winter storm Thursday and Friday. A blizzard warning was in effect for Jefferson, Lewis and Oswego counties through Friday afternoon. On Thursday, “towering waves along Lake Ontario, some as big as 23 feet” formed and hit the southern shore, the Watertown Daily Times reported. A flood warning was in effect through Friday morning. More than 2 feet of snow fell in the Tug Hill Plateau on Thursday and Friday. Another 2 feet is expected to accumulate over the weekend.

Paul Leahy uses a snowblower to clear the walkway of his sister-in-law’s house on Broadway, Saranac Lake, Friday morning. (Enterprise photo — Peter Crowley)

Essex County Emergency Services Director Don Jaquish said the snow wasn’t much of a problem for Essex County.

“We’ve had a few motor vehicle accidents, but nothing major,” he said in a phone interview Friday afternoon. “We haven’t had any real issues, and we don’t expect to.”

He said the east side of the county toward Elizabethtown wasn’t seeing a lot of snow.

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Enterprise Staff Writers Aaron Cerbone and Griffin Kelly and intern Katherine McDonald contributed to this report.

Jerome “Champ” Branch takes a sack of groceries home amid fresh snow Friday morning on Broadway, Saranac Lake. (Enterprise photo — Peter Crowley)

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