A young man walks down Center Street wearing shorts.

Adam Miller, like most downtown businesses, is open.

Feeling pretty confident about the ability of my four-wheel drive truck with new all-weather tires, when I left Le Roy this afternoon, I decided to take Route 19 to the Byron-Bergen area and then head back to Batavia.

Route 33 proved to be an adventure. I passed at least four vehicles off the road.  At times visibility was no more than 5 or 10 feet and I had to crawl along at about 5 mph.  

I was surprised at how many people driving just regular passenger vehicles were out on the road after all of the warnings about treacherous conditions.

The visitor information booth in the parking lot of the Holland Land Office Museum was broken into last night, according to Kelly Rapone, tourism marketing director for the Genesee County Chamber of Commerce.

Somebody broke a lock to gain entry and then made himself at home.

Nothing was stolen -- there's nothing inside to steal, unless you think you can resell travel brochures.

"We were grateful that it had not been vandalized as we had just refinished the inside this summer," Rapone said.

The lock has been replaced.

Rapone supplied the photo.

"We're not sure what he did with all the Windex!" she said. "That was half full when we locked it up in October."

Due to the severe-weather travel advisories and lake-effect snow warnings, the following closures have been reported to us:

United Memorial Medical Center outpatient sites: 

• Byron Family Care
• Batavia Family Care
• Tountas Family Care
• Tonawanda Seneca Family Care
• The Jerome Center
• Corporate Health
• Pembroke Diagnostics
• LeRoy Diagnostics
• Surgical Practice Office

Patients with appointments for today have been called and will be asked to reschedule.

The Hospital and Emergency Department are open. Please call 9-1-1 for emergency medical attention.

Genesee Community College is closing at 4 p.m. -- no classes for tonight.
http://www.genesee.edu/

The Byron-Bergen Public Library is closed today.

You can view current conditions on the Thruway from three webcams positioned along the route in the county here.

Sheriff Gary Maha has issued a travel advisory for Genesee County.

"No unnecessary travel is advised," Maha said in a statement.

He noted that all roads in Genesee County suffer from poor visibility and slippery conditions due to blowing and drifting snow.

There are several working accidents in the county.

Maha noted this is an advisory and not a ban.

More traffic woes:

An elderly man was stuck in his vehicle off the roadway, west of Wortendyke and east of Upton roads. But now he's at home and a tow truck is en route to get his car.

There's a vehicle stuck on Main Street in front of the jail in Batavia.

There's a vehicle sticking out into the roadway at Ellicott and Linwood in Batavia.

Big-rig in ditch in Pembroke.

As if things weren't bad enough out there, youths are reported to be disrupting traffic, throwing snowballs at vehicles near Washington Avenue and Ellicott Street.

(Law enforcement and emergency crews are swamped and now someone has to deal with this, too.)

There's a motor-vehicle accident with injuries on the Thruway in the westbound lane about a half-mile from the Batavia exit (mile marker 389 and a half, east of the Route 48 interchange). Emergency crews are responding.

Reader Dan Jones unfortunately is driving on the Thruway and called to say: "Tell your readers to stay the hell off the road."

Also, there's a car off the road at Pearl and Lover's Lane.

And intermittant power outages are wreaking havor with some communications, including being able to book people at the jail.

You know it's bad weather when a responder tells dispatch: "I think I'm on location."

UPDATE (by Howard): Picture above sent in from Dan Jones depicting the white out conditions on the Thruway.

Emergency crews are shutting down southbound Route 77 at Route 33 because a disabled tractor-trailer is blocking the roadway.

About two months ago, local law enforcement received a tip from an unnamed informant that methamphetamine was being manufactured and sold out of a home in Le Roy.

This morning at 6:15 the officers from Le Roy, Genesee County, State Police and the DEA raided a home at 28 Clay St. and arrested five people.

"It took some time to develop probable cause for a search warrant," Sheriff Gary Maha said at a press conference this morning.

The five people arrested at the house have not been formerly charged yet. They will be arraigned later today in Le Roy Town Court.

Taken into custody were:

• Kari L. Riggi, 21, of 28 Clay St.
• Koree R. Stephenson, 22, 14 St. Marks St., Le Roy
• Christopher J. Elmore, 31, 14 St. Marks St.
• Nathan D. Bernard, 21, 28 Clay St.
• Joshua A. Miller, 20, 51 Myrtle St.

Maha described the lab found in the house as a working meth lab and that it was larger than the one allegedly found in Alabama last month.

"That was a little bit of a surprise to us," Maha said. "We didn’t expect it to be as large, so that’s why it will take a little bit more time for clean up."

Agents will be on scene all day, he said, and a clean-up crew that specializes in this sort of hazardous material clean up for law enforcement will arrive from Pennsylvania this afternoon.

The alleged lab was located in the attic and, according to Maha, there was also a quantity of finished product in the house.

Le Roy Chief Chris Hayward said his department believes some of the meth was being distributed in Le Roy, but some of it may have been going into other communities as well. He said where it was being distributed is unclear at this time.

Hayward said this is the first known meth lab found in the Village.

"Over the last 18 or 24 months I've been on public record as saying we have a growing problem in this community and we've been taking steps to address it," Hayward said. "If nothing else, this demonstrates to the community that there is a problem here that we need to address."

Hayward said he believes three of the five individuals grew up in Le Roy and another has lived in the Village for a decade or so. Police have also responded to 28 Clay on calls unrelated to the suspected meth labe, Hayward said.

The Drug Enforcement Agency also participated in the investigation, but has not yet decided whether to file federal charges against the suspects. In the Alabama/Batavia case, the three individuals arrested were immediately arraigned on federal charges, which carry stiffer penalties. Maha said then that the DEA was brought in to send a clear message that meth manufacturing won't be tolerated in Genesee County.

Five people were taken into custody this morning in connection with a suspected meth lab at 28 Clay St., Le Roy, the Sheriff's Office announced this morning.

At 6:15 a.m., the Sheriff's Office, Le Roy Police Department and State Police executed a search warrant at the Clay Street address.

No further details have been released at this time. Sheriff Gary Maha and Chief Chris Hayward are holding a joint press conference at 11 a.m.

The sun is out in Oakfield, at least for now.

More pictures after the jump:

I keep hearing all over town -- "they're never going to be able to plow that thing," or "I can't wait to see a plow try to go through that thing."

Well, when I stopped by about an hour ago, it was plowed and a truck was even making it through.

I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens when there's real snow accumulation.

Also, below, picture of a woman in Batavia shoveling her walk.

Two men have been arrested in connection with a series of car break-ins yesterday morning in the area of Ross Street, Batavia.

One man was taken into custody after allegedly attempting to run from the scene and the other was apprehended later yesterday.

Arrested were James E. Murray, Jr., 21, of Bethany, and Frank J. Falcone, 24, of 132 Ross St., Batavia.

Both were charged with petit larceny.

Murray was turned over to the Wyoming Sheriff's office on a warrant for alleged violation of probation. Falcone was issued an appearance ticket.

Several items allegedly taken were recovered by police, but the owners have not been identified. Police are asking that anybody who had their car broken into overnight Dec. 8/9 to contact Det. Todd Crossett at 343-6353.

Lt. Steele, Sgt. Yaeger, Officers Casper, Bolles and Coffey assisted in the investigation.

From the sounds of things on the scanner this morning, law enforcement is dealing with a lot of issues, from stuck vehicles -- including a snow plow -- around the county.

All Genesee County schools are closed.

The National Weather Service says the lake-effect snow warning remains in effect until 10 p.m.

"A ban of lake-effect snow south of Buffalo and Batavia will continue to settle southward, ans slip further southward before drifting back north into areas south of Buffalo and Batavia for a while this afternoon," says the warning.

High winds also continue to blow.

Snow fall in affected areas will hit at about 1- to 2-inches per hour.

UPDATE: Please use comments to provide information on how the storm is impacting your corner of Genesee County. 

According to this interactive map from the New York Times, 8 percent of Genesee County residents receive food stamps. That's up 16 percent from 2007.

Compared to other GLOW counties:

• Orleans, 12 percent, up 25 percent
• Livingston, 9 percent, up 41 percent
• Wyoming, 7 percent, up 28 percent.

Of the four counties, Orleans has the largest percentage of children receiving food stamps at 23 percent, which is close to the national average of 1-in-four children on assistance.