”We’re Literally Trapped Here”; Parts of Utica Inaccessible After Stella
The above photo is not of a parking lot or driveway. It's the scene on one of the many snow-stuffed streets in Utica.
While much of central New York was spending Wednesday morning digging out from snowstorm Stella, it appears the process hadn't even begun yet in parts of Utica.
''We're literally trapped here,'' Rocco Cornacchia said by phone from his Clementian Street home, just off Utica's Memorial Parkway on the city's East side.
''The snowplows never came by. It's waist high in the street'', Cornacchia said.
The build-up of more than two-feet, possible three-feet of snow, has left his street a disaster, he said.
''There are multiple cars stuck on each exit of the street...it's impossible for a plow to even come down here at this point. There are people shoveling in the middle of the road. A couple [pickup] trucks with plows tried to plow the road themselves and they ended up sandwiching the snow into a bank in the middle of the road. You can't even walk through it now,'' Cornacchia said.
''I work at a school so I've had the last two days off, and I've been home. The [city] plows never came through here.''
Cornacchia also said his sister-in-law, who lives at the same address, ended up hitching a ride home from police when she became stranded.
''It wasn't a cop car, it was an SUV. He dropped her off two blocks away and told her she had to walk because he didn't want to come anywhere near here,'' he said.