Week of snow buries Lake Ontario towns

MEXICO, N.Y. – Footprints leading to second-story windows? Even in this winter-tested town, that’s a big snowstorm.

Mexico and other communities along eastern Lake Ontario, buried in 7 or more feet of snow since Sunday, have seen the landscape turn otherworldly. Colossal arches of snow stretch from the roofs they slid from, and steep snowbanks make sidewalks look like miniature canyons.

But locals aren’t marveling. They’re shoveling.

“Everything is 10 times more difficult,” Debbie Allers said, hoisting yet another shovelful of snow outside Red’s Video Store. “Just getting out of the driveway. Going to the store. Anything.”

There was a break in the weather Friday, but forecasters expected another 6 to 12 inches, beginning overnight.

“Have to move fast. Want to at least get it off my roof,” said Ray DeLong, 75, as he carved a path to his driveway with a snowblower and two contractors pushed streams of snow from the roof of his two-story home.

“This is right up there with the best of them,” DeLong grumbled as his snowblower clogged and stalled. “Almost as bad as the blizzard of ‘66.”

No deaths related to the snow had been reported, but Gov. Eliot Spitzer declared a state disaster emergency in Oswego County.

Parish and Scriba had about 8 feet of snow since the squalls started, according to the National Weather Service. Mexico Mayor Terry Grimshaw said his village was blanketed by 7 feet.

“We’re used to a good two- or three-day storm here, that’s no big deal,” Grimshaw said. “But this one has just kept hammering us. There were no breaks until today.”