Local roads may be impassable in places, but theres plenty of gas to go around, and banks and Long Island MacArthur Airport is open, officials said Monday.
Besides some delays and cancellations of flights to and from Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., operations at MacArthur Airport were running smoothly, according to Deputy Airport Commissioner Terry Hennessey. As of 11:45 a.m. Monday, Hennessey cited no restrictions on commercial or noncommercial traffic, despite a driving frozen rain.
Mondays quiet was in stark contrast to Fridays chaos.
Things got ugly as Nemo approached, said Michael Watt, executive director of the Long Island Gas Retailers Association.
Friday morning was problematic, Watt said, citing several calls from frustrated motorists as sporadic power outages and gasoline shortages started choking retail supplies. It was very reminiscent of Hurricane Sandy.
Such was not the case Monday.
With many Suffolk County municipalities still digging out from upwards of 3 feet of snow and dozens of school districts closed, it appeared many motorists were still at home, and Watt reported no particular areas hard hit by shortages or outages. Many stations that had run short Friday were able to resupply over the weekend, he noted.
Although some banks in Suffolk County closed early on Friday and remained closed Saturday, they were back in business on Monday, officials said.
Bridgehampton National Bank spokeswoman Claudia Pilato said her bank is 100 percent open today, as are Suffolk County National Bank branches, Bank Vice President Frank Filipo said.
MacArthur Airport was also doing better Monday, after closing to all traffic for part of the weekend. When Southwest Airlines canceled most of its afternoon program on Friday, Hennessey said, the airport shut down and remained closed until 9 a.m. Sunday, when it accepted its first arrival in over 40 hours, a corporate charter.
By late Sunday morning, the airport was operating a full schedule. Hennessey cited a strong effort by approximately 85 airport employees to bring the airport back to speed, plowing runways, ramps and parking lots. Officially, Long Island MacArthur recorded 28.5 inches of snow, an unprecedented amount, Hennessey said.
We had the airport fully operational within a day (of the end of the blizzard), he added. Thats a credit to a lot of people who worked very, very hard.
Bob Sherry, founder of Ronkonkoma-based ExcelAire, a fixed base operator of private flights based at MacArthur, said the storm was the worst hes seen at the airport in 30 years.
This is the worst Ive ever had to plow, Sherry said. This one got us good.
Sherry said he was forced to halt departures and arrivals at MacArthur from Friday evening to Saturday night. Some flights that were to land and be housed in Ronkonkoma were rerouted to Teterboro instead, although Sherry said his company was able to notify passengers of the impending closure ahead of time, so no business was lost.
ExcelAire had only three flights on Sunday, a few below normal for a weekend.
We do a lot of travel on the weekends to the islands or to ski resorts, Sherry said.
Despite icy and treacherous conditions on the roadways, Sherry said by Monday, business at ExcelAire was basically back to normal.
He will, however, change his plowing options going forward, either by hiring someone else or getting larger equipment.
Our equipment was way undersized, he said. Next year, well be ready.
http://libn.com/2013/02/11/long-island-macarthur-airport-banks-gas-stations-open/
(2013, February 11) Long Island MacArthur Airport, banks, gas stations open. Long Island Business News. Retrieved February 12, 2013, from www.libn.com
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