Long Island
The entrance to the Long Island Expressway is seen in the Suffolk County town of Dix Hills, New York. A blizzard seen as mild elsewhere continued to shut down Long Island on Tuesday. Reuters

More than 500 pieces of snow-fighting equipment and 100 National Guard members were headed toward Suffolk County after parts of Long Island got more than 20 inches of snow and counting, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday. While Monday night's much-hyped blizzard wasn't as severe in New York City as forecasters and Mayor Bill de Blasio had warned, the snowstorm pummeled Suffolk County, leaving some residents unable to leave their homes.

"The good news is that the entire region was not hurt as hard as we expected," Cuomo told reporters at a press conference Tuesday. "Bad news is Suffolk County took it right on the chin."

Cuomo said residents should remain off the road unless they absolutely had to go somewhere. There were "many stuck cars" on the Long Island Expressway in Medford, according to tweets from PIX11 reporter James Ford.

The Long Island Railroad planned to resume service Tuesday afternoon on a Sunday schedule, but trains would not run east of Hicksville on the Port Jefferson branch, on the West Hempstead branch, on the Montauk branch east of Babylon or from Greenport to Ronkonkoma, according to the MTA website. All bridges and tunnels were reopened.

Suffolk County was also home to the first reported death related to the blizzard. Sean Urda, a 17-year-old from Huntington, died after losing control while snow-tubing and hitting a light post, ABC News reported.

Snowfall totals in Long Island ranged from 28.5 inches in Orient to 12 inches in Oyster Bay, according to News 12. Hampton Bays saw 24 inches of snow; Medford, 22.3; and Eastport, 22. Suffolk was the only New York county that remained under a winter storm warning Tuesday afternoon. The blizzard warning had been canceled, and alerts for other areas like Long Island's Nassau County were dropped to winter weather advisories.

The flurries were due to end Tuesday night, but in the meantime Long Island residents were shoveling their driveways and playing in the snow.

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