Cuomo Sends National Guard To Hudson Valley To Aid in Stella Relief

Following the blizzard, Gov. Cuomo announced he’s sending the National Guard to the Hudson Valley.

At a press conference Wednesday in Poughkeepsie, Gov. Cuomo mentioned Poughkeepsie and Beacon as priority areas in need of help.

Cuomo announced he is redeploying an additional 100 National Guard members and an additional 100 pieces of equipment to help in Poughkeepsie and Beacon.

“I can’t say enough about the National Guard. They have been fantastic, in every storm, every emergency,” Cuomo said. “They have equipment, they have Humvees, and they’ve been great. General German is here, and Brigadier General Center has been with me all day, and they’ve really been top notch.”

Poughkeepsie Mayor Rob Rolison added that he asked the Governor for help.

“The Governor has come through with those resources and we couldn’t be happier to get operations going in the city of Poughkeepsie,” Rolison said. “So some of the things the state can do, we can then deploy our resources in other areas and in some of the neighborhoods in the city.”

Dutchess County Executive Mark Molinaro mentioned that while Dutchess County wasn’t forecasted to get the worst of the storm, but that’s what happened.

“Dutchess County was prepared, but we could not respond without the assistance of the State of New York,” Molinaro said. “We responded to over 490 emergency calls during that 36 hour period with 12 separate departments represented at our operations center with 26 separate staff we coordinated this county’s response and I admit that I’ve, quite frankly, never been prouder of the community.”

At the press conference, Cuomo lifted all travel bans across the state, but mentioned many didn’t follow his instructions to stay off the roads.

“We ask people to stay off the roads, people wind up on the roads – they get stuck. One car gets stuck, now nobody can pass by, and I can’t tell you how many stranded vehicles we’ve had all across the state where people get stuck and they just lock the car and they leave,” he said.

This spring, local scientists plan to release Samurai Wasps into the Hudson Valley to kill stink bugs. One local scientists tells us why this is a good idea.