Darien Patch: After the Storm

During the overnight hours of Saturday, Dec. 19, a winter storm frosted our Darien Patch in nearly 10 inches of light, fluffy snow.

Per issuance of the National Weather Service, a Winter Storm Warning, in effect from Saturday at noon, had residents hunkering down for a heavy dusting. Supermarkets were packed on Saturday morning, leaving pre-storm shoppers hard-pressed for a space. And then, a waiting game commenced. Not a flurry hit the ground till late afternoon.

"I think it's a marketing ploy to get people shopping," said one customer.

Another referred to news of the impending storm as "the ultimate stimulus package."

But when the snow did start on Sunday evening—albeit later than expected—it fell hard and steady through the night. Flurries lingered through sunrise on Sunday morning, though coffee shops and the like opened as usual. Customers were scarce though; the roads quiet. The only real traffic: snowplows.

Dreams of a white Christmas aside, in meteorological terms, the storm came as the result of a band of low pressure, which deepened while crossing the Atlantic and journeyed up the East coast dumping snow, sleet and ice along the way. Parts of the New York City metropolitan area saw up to 16 inches of snow. This reporter's ruler, dipped in snow throughout Darien, averaged at about 10 inches. (Send your own measurements to cecelia@patch.com.)

As far as police and fire incidents are concerned, Darien escaped the storm relatively unscathed, said Sergeant Jeremiah Marron of the Darien Police Department. But it's not the day-of that's generally a cause for concern, he said; rather, it's the days that follow.

"The roads are definitely not safe at this point. The cold and ice provide pretty treacherous driving conditions. You can get going okay, but it's still hard to stop," Sgt. Marron said.

Last night's blotter is thin. At 9 p.m. a resident on Greenleaf Avenue reported vandalism to holiday lights. Small footprints in fresh snow lead the resident to believe a young adult or child had meddled with strings of holiday lights rendering them inoperative.

Three residents called the police for rides home, after leaving their own cars out in the snow for too long. Cold cars are hard to start, said Sgt. Marron. In addition, one car left parked on Old Kings Highway off the Post Road was towed.

This morning at approximately 10:30 a.m., Max, a Jack Russell Terrier was found playing in Cherry Lawn Park. A bit disoriented and astray from his home on Brookside Road, Officer Joseph Licari picked him up and took the pup back home. In the back of the cop car, Max seemed at once exhausted from his runaround and energized by the new play space that was Licari's car. Asked what kind of trouble he had gotten himself into, Max said:

"Woof!"

He poked his nose through the bars, barked once, whimpered a bit, and then bowed his head.

Officer Licari said it was "time to go home."

Sgt. Marron urges residents to take it easy on the roads today. Only drive when you need to, and when you do use precaution, said Marron. And as always, wear your seatbelt.

In accordance with a town ordinance, residents have 18 hours to remove snow from driveways and walkways; failure to comply (though Marron says the ordinace is rarely enforced) results in a $90 fine.

For the Fire Departments too, Saturday proved a relatively quiet evening, with no motor vehicle accidents or fires to report, only a few fire alarms. All alarms were false with the exception of one real smoke alarm, caused by a burnt paper plate.

First Selectman Dave Campbell said he was "happy with how it went." The clearing of the snow, that is. It's the Department of Public Works' job to clear the main roads, while private plowers are responsible for private roads and driveways.

The major concern heard from the Public Works plowers—and not a complaint unique to this storm—was with regards to their privately-owned counterparts who dumped private snow on public roads, causing a hazard. This morning, police received such complaints from the gas stations.

Overall, Campbell said this morning presented a relatively pain-free job to the Public Works crew who reported that the snow was "light, fluffy and easy to move."

Campbell called the storm "a good test run," and encouraged this reporter and other Darien residents to get out, enjoy the snow, and build a snowman.

If you have photographs of snowmen, sledding, stories of the storm or snow-fall measurements that you'd like to share, you can post them right here to the article. Or send them along to Editor Cecelia Smith at cecelia@patch.com, and we'll post them for the world to see.