Communities across the Hudson Valley are bracing for a powerful nor’easter, and some have even declared snow emergencies in order to keep people safe.

Communities across the Hudson Valley are bracing for a powerful nor’easter, and some have even declared snow emergencies in order to keep people safe.

The Village of Ossining is one of several communities in which the order goes into effect starting at 8 a.m. today.

They say cars on "Snow Emergency Streets" will be towed after that time. Village of Sleepy Hollow officials have also declared a snow emergency as of 6 p.m. this evening. They are asking that people please follow the snow emergency parking rules that are posted which also means moving cars off certain streets.

Meanwhile, Westchester County officials are taking their own steps to prepare saying they're ready to close the county airport, if the conditions get bad enough. They are also asking  people to stay off the roads, especially during the height of the storm. "Things will not work perfectly in the heart of the snow storm. Be patient, and understand that we're going through an emergency and we'll get through the emergency," says Westchester County Executive George Latimer.

And DPW crews ask the same thing. They say it's much harder for them to clear a path with cars on the roadways. They add that if you have to be on the roads, give their vehicles a wide berth and don't try to get around them. Officials say many of the DPW crews spent a good part of Tuesday pre-treating the roadways in anticipation of what's to come and they will continue doing that this morning.

Some crews are out on the roadways pre-treating with salt, sand and a special brine mixture that helps to melt snow and ice. They began pre-treatment yesterday, but they've been working on their battle plan since the weekend due to increased concerns about COVID-19 and social distancing.

Being COVID-19 safe has added to the workload. All the trucks and equipment are now sanitized in between each shift. Officials say that can slow down shift changes by half an hour to 40 minutes. But they say that's better than ending up with 20 workers or more out sick.

DPW officials tell News 12 they expect this to be a tough storm to handle due to the winds that could bring down trees and power lines - not to mention blow the snow around making cleanup that much harder.

"2- 3 inches an hour, no one can keep up with that. So we will eventually catch up, it's got to slow down eventually and that's when we start to catch up on things," says White Plains Highway Superintendent Angelo Finateri. In White Plains, they'll have about 75 plows out on the roads plus other equipment. Finateri says between that and the storm itself, it's not something you want to compete with - in other words, "If you don't have to go out don't go out, it's going to be dangerous out there."