After a storm of the magnitude the New York area faced Monday and Tuesday, digging out will take not only some strength and heavy equipment, but some skill as well.
Many homeowners in Queens were at it all day, but some were frustrated to see people shoveling and putting the snow right back into the street.
It’s counterproductive to Department of Sanitation plow truck driver Phillip Covington. It only makes his job harder.
"If you want a piece of advice: don't throw it back on the street, put it on the side," he said.
A 20-year veteran of the department, Covington knows a thing or two about clearing snow, even when it’s more than a foot.
“Just throw it on a mound, like a pile or a mound of snow," Covington said.
Covington's seen it all but there's still something different about this storm.
“This is like a nuisance type of storm because it snowed and then it stopped for a minute and then it wants to rain," Covington said.
Driving through Queens, for the most part PIX11 found blacktop, but Sanitation Commissioner Edward Grayson admitted plow trucks were still trying to make it to all residential streets
“Were out there through the night, out all day today," he said. "We will readdress those residential streets. You will see blacktop today.”
When it floods in Rockaway Beach, it really floods.
Resident Mona Hubbard said, “It's like a river down there, you need a rowboat to get out of here.”
Hubbard recorded video Tuesday from her apartment as she watched her neighbor fight through coastal flood waters.
She described her street, Beach 84th Street, Wednesday.
“It’s snows then the high tide comes up so it overflows and it’s like the Antarctica her out here," she said.
It's an on going problem for people who live on her block. Citizen App video showed a city sanitation truck being swept away —the water right up to the door.
Long time resident Wanda McDowell said she feels like a prisoner in her own home whenever there is high tide or a storm.
“We are trapped in," she said. "We can’t go anywhere.”
