The morning after all is well in Oyster Bay, Bayville and East Norwich

Trudging through the snow they could not walk fast. No matter, Donna Galgano said. They were determined to reach the People’s Pantry during the nor'easter on Wednesday. The nonprofit at 123 Audrey Avenue in Oyster Bay is usually open on Friday, but Galgano said in lieu of the predicted storm she decided to open sooner, which ended up being a good decision.

“The streets were not plowed yet so it was hard for them,” she recalled. “Bag in hand they kept coming. I felt so badly for them.”

The People’s Pantry, founded in November 2019 by Galgano, of Bayville, her sister, Valerie Monroy, of Commack, and Gina Kang, of Port Washington, was open on Wednesday, from 2 to 6 p.m. Galgano said they assisted 45 people, most of which were seniors.

The pantry will be open again on Friday at 9 a.m. Galgano is predicting that the remainder of people who usually come by will be there.  

A powerful nor'easter whipped across Nassau County, dumping 3 to 6 inches of snow on the South Shore and 4 to 8 on the North Shore. The snow, at times, mixed with light rain, leaving a thin sheen of ice atop the white stuff.

Road conditions were better on main thoroughfares, worse on side streets.

As of 8 a.m. Thursday, snow still appeared to be falling lightly, and wind gusts remained strong.

“It’s super windy like a hurricane here,” Galgano’s son, Andy said. “The snow is blowing around. The house was shaking last night.”

The 24 year old said the snow in Bayville was worse than he had expected. “I thought I was going to be able to go to work in Syosset this morning but I will have to work from home.”

Although some school districts on Thursday had students participate in remote learning, Locust Valley Central School District and the Oyster Bay-East Norwich Central School District closed all of the schools, concerned there may be power outages.

Lynda Petrillo, of East Norwich, said that although she had not left her house she could see outside her window that there is a great deal of snow. “I just don’t have it in me to go out yet,” she said. “The wind is howling. But the plows have been coming since last night and came several times this morning.”

She is estimating East Norwich got slammed with 6 inches of snow. “My doorbell must have been getting hit by pellets of ice because I kept hearing a chime last night,” she said. “I think it’s a great day to stay inside.”

The Long Island Rail Road was running 10 to 15 behind schedule systemwide. NICE Bus also reported delays.

The Village of Bayville is doing great, Mayor Bob De Natale said. “DPW plowed through the night and hit most of the roads by now twice or maybe three times,” he said on Thursday morning. “They will be working throughout the day. I admire these men. It is a remarkable service they do for the community. We are lucky to have them.”

The mayor said he has not heard of any flooding in the village.

PSEG-LI reported that about 3,300 Long Islanders lost power overnight, with 150 outages on Thursday morning.