Whiteout conditions struck Watertown and other communities around Jefferson County, where lake-effect snow on Wednesday fell at a rate of several inches an hour.

The treacherous conditions caused schools, businesses and even Fort Drum to close for the day.

Crews were out all day trying to ensure roads were passable for emergency purposes.

“You can see as things get redder, it gets a little bit more intense in terms of weather-related stuff right here,” New York State Department of Transportation spokesperson Mike Flick said of a nearby computer screen.

From his desk in Watertown, Flick checks road conditions in real time. It's a website the DOT helps provide information for 511.

“I’m not going to say it's up to the minute. It's pretty close,” he said.

The lines were red because of the massive amount of lake-effect snow falling over the city and locations north. Several inches per hour adds up.

“Mother Nature is a bugger. I mean, she gets a vote in this and she's a tough adversary,” Flick said.

While this snow event is nothing new to the North Country, it's been that left-right from Mother Nature, a constant peppering over the past 10 days, that has worn residents out.

“Everybody gets tired sooner or later. I mean, you can hunker down and you get stuff done, but after a while, you know, you do get tired,” Flick said.

It all started about 10 days ago with a massive windstorm that produced gusts of about 80 miles per hour in the North Country. A couple of days later, it picked right back up again. And throughout it all, there's been rain, there's been snow. And of course, today's heavy lake snow, which shut down everyday life around the area.

“We're busy,” Flick said. “We've got crews out. Approximately 300 people across the five counties of Region 7 right now, who are out 24 hours. We plow about 100 plow beats, and they're out and they'll continue to be out throughout the duration of the storm and through the cleanup."

That's the benefit of living in a community like the North Country, Flick said. People work where they live. There's a tremendous amount of pride in getting that job done.

“I mean, a lot of these folks have run the same beat for years. That's their beat. You know, they take good care of that as I do my driveway home. And you take care of yours. I mean, that's their piece of road,” Flick said.

Now, it's a waiting game, hoping for that break, Mother Nature, to catch her breath and to let off just a little bit. But snow is expected to fall into Thursday.