Mahwah's Storm Response Will Be ‘All Hands on Deck’

Mahwah officials and emergency responders met Thursday to spell out a plan for responding to the snowstorm Friday, which is anticipated to drop up to two feet of snow on Mahwah and surrounding towns.

“We are all hands on deck,” Mayor Bill Laforet said Thursday night. “We met with the police department, DPW, and all of the emergency crews, and we are ready for the storm.”

Laforet also said officials met with Orange & Rockland representatives to discuss its response to the storm.

Though the company, “doesn’t anticipated widespread outages,” as a result of the storm, O&R has prepped its crews and tapped mutual aid crews to respond to any outages that do occur.

Orange & Rockland announced Thursday it would be on Storm Alert starting Friday morning at 8 a.m. At that time, “O&R shifts into Incident Command System management. That means normal field operations are cancelled and the Company assumes a 24/7 full-mobilization directed at repairing storm damage and returning electric service to normal,” it said in a release Thursday.

Laforet said the township is “confident we have prepared for any contingencies,” but did recommend that residents prepare for the storm ahead of time, and stay home one snow starts to pick up in the afternoon.

“It’s best for residents to stay off the roads, stay home and be safe,” he said.

Recycling Friday has been canceled, but garbage pick-up is still on, though Laforet said that could change if necessary.

According to local forecasts, light snow should begin by 8 a.m. Friday, become more intense by 11 a.m., and heavy by 2 p.m. The most significant snow fall is expected to fall between 7 p.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Saturday.

The township will provide updates to residents via its Nixle text message alert system throughout the storm. In its last update Thursday, the town warned "This has the portential to be a dangerous storm."

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