Wet, heavy snow arrives in Litchfield County

LITCHFIELD COUNTY, CT (WFSB) - The heavy snow is causing dangerous road conditions in Litchfield County.

Erik Larson is no stranger to snowstorms, but this one is different.

“It’s just a Winter Wonderland. It’s crazy. I’ve never seen anything like this,” Larson said.

Larson is a volunteer firefighter in Goshen.

He worries about snow this heavy.

“People getting hurt, trees falling down, we had an accident earlier today,” said Larson.

Along the Sharon Turnpike a tree fell on top of a plow truck. It happened around 10:45 a.m.

State police said two people inside were taken to the hospital. They are expected to survive.

The sound of branches snapping seemed constant around Litchfield County.

“It’s pretty crazy. Wires are down. Limbs are cracking as we’re speaking,” said Niko Ajro.

With each branch down is another hazard.

Downed power lines blocked off roads.

Near Milton, a tree on top of a power line was causing smoke to fill the air.

As the snow continues to fall, Larson worries about which branch will break next.

“The weight of the trees, it’s only a matter of time before it’s going to snap and bring down wires,” said Larson.

Winter Storm Brenda brought heavy snow in the morning, and it could be heard on the the branches and trees in Norfolk and Canaan.

School districts posted closures. See the list here.

There could be several issues including broken snow blowers and plows.

Despite the late season storm, there was still time to buy a snowblower or get one fixed at a place like Goff’s Equipment Service in Litchfield.

“Unfortunately we switched the showroom over last week to lawn and garden equipment selling lawn mowers and then all of a sudden we’re going to get a big snow storm so the guys had to go to the warehouse, pull all of the snowblowers out of the warehouse,” said Tim Goff, Goff’s Equipment general manager and owner.

With winter still rearing its head, Litchfield County was expected to be the jackpot for wet, heavy snow during Brenda.

Crews in Norfolk said they were aware of the challenges that kind of snow would bring to their clean up, but they were prepared.

John Barbagallo, a public information officer for Norfolk, said his crews added chains to their trucks to help drive through the snow.

“It’s going to make things greasier and slipper, especially once they start plowing,” Barbagallo said. “If we’re at the point where we have to get out and use those chains, then people should probably just stay home. If it’s going to be that heavy, the roads are going to be bad anyway. If you can can just stay home and enjoy the snow from there, do it.”

Goff agreed and said clean up for resident could be strenuous.

“Yeah you definitely don’t want to be shoveling in this kind of snow but even in wet, heavy snow the equipment we do sell you’re going to break shear pins, you’re going to bend parts on your plows. You do have to be careful pushing this wet, heavy stuff around,” he said.

Plus, there was the risk for power outages.

“With this storm that we’re getting supposedly high winds and generators are a big seller for us too if you lose power it’s good to have a generator back up and we have those here as well and are fixing them,” Goff said.

Just remember to not push it and stay safe. Having a plow come or asking for help is always a good idea.

“If you have back issues already on top of heart related issues yeah it could be a problem for someone who’s not used to the lack of snow we’ve had were used to going out and having to move this heavy wet stuff,” Goff said.

Barbagallo also advises residents to slow down when driving on the roads, and to keep an eye on town social media pages in case of extended power outages.

Read the full forecast in Channel 3′s technical discussion here.

Download the WFSB Weather and News apps here.

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