Community Corner

Mayor: Stay Inside, It's Going to Be a Long Night

Parts of Lake Hiawatha have lost power, more than 50 trees have fallen in town.

The most October snow in more than 60 years could be on the ground in Parsippany by Sunday morning.

The National Weather Service's winter storm warning remains in effect until 2 a.m. for all of Morris County, with 4 to 8 inches expected in Parsippany.

Reduced visibility is making traveling difficult, according to Mayor James Barberio, who is out and about to assess the situation. He reports that sections of Lake Hiawatha are out of power.

Find out what's happening in Parsippanywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"It's awful out there, but our teams are working hard," he said. "Trees are falling all over the place. I just saw a tree fall on a house. You can hear them falling.

"If anyone is thinking about going out, don't," the mayor said. "My recommendation is to stay in your house. It's going to be a long night."

Find out what's happening in Parsippanywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to WeatherSource, a trace of snow has been recorded at the Boonton measuring station 15 times in October since 1950. The last time it happened was on Oct. 4, 1987.

This weekend's pre-Halloween storm gained strength during the Saturday afternoon hours and continues to fall, producing as much as 1 to 2 inches per hour, according to the NWS.

The weight of the wet snow is what is bringing down tree limbs and power lines. Public works employees are busy with incidents throughout the township, according to Pete Devlin, general supervisor with Parsippany's Department of Public Works. 

"At the present time, we have 53 fallen trees," he said. "We've shut off Route 53 and Vail Road at Route 46. There are live wires across Route 46."

Parsippany Police say no warnings have been issued, but said staying off the roadways would be the sensible thing to do. 

Temperatures will hover around the freezing mark for the remainder of the day and into tonight, the NWS said. Winds gusts of up to 17 miles per hour are expected, the NWS said.

Patch will continue to provide updates throughout the storm. What does it look like in your neighborhood? Let us know in the comments and upload your own photos to this post.


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