WINSTED, Conn. — A rainy Monday in the Northwest Hills turned to wet heavy snow by the evening. The beginning of what will likely be a long stretch of snowfall across the area.
"It definitely looks like it’s going to be the largest storm that we have had in Norfolk this season," said Jon Barbagallo, public information officer for the town of Norfolk.
Crews spent the day preparing for an all-hands-on-deck effort and expect to be on the roads from Monday night to at least Wednesday afternoon with the possibility of more than a foot of snow in this area.
"The snow conditions with it being so heavy and wet make it more greasy, so it does make it more slippery, especially after they start plowing and you have that couple of inches on the road it will be a challenge to drive on," Barbagallo said.
There is also a concern about people being left in the dark.
"It is going to be a significant amount of snow and it’s going to be very wet and it’s going to be very heavy so that is our biggest concern as that will lead to mass power outages," said Joshua Kelly, town manager of Winchester.
He said there is a plan in place to open an emergency shelter if necessary.
"We don’t want to open it needlessly but we are prepared in the event that we need to open it and people out there need heat," Kelly said.
Meantime people spent the day making sure they were ready for that possibility as well.
"Making sure I have diesel for the tractor to clear the driveway and getting gas for the generator just to make sure," said Neil Haggard of Colebrook. "I’m up on the hill it gets pretty windy and they’re talking about a lot of snow in the higher elevations so I’m a little worried about that but we’ll see," he said.
While folks here are used to winter weather they haven’t seen too much of it this season but said they are ready for whatever.
"We’ve just got a plow at home, we’re just gonna shovel and just take it as it goes," said Sal Bazzano of Winsted.
Gaby Molina is a reporter and anchor at FOX61 News. She can be reached at mmolina@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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