I am surprised that in my 4-5 hours of driving I didn't find any cars off the road. But I did manage to find somebody that parked on Main St. Batavia that is probably going to have a difficult time getting out.

UPDATE (by Howard): Interesting, the Daily picked up on the same shot.

City police have come out with more charges against the parents of the 6-year-old boy who brought a loaded handgun onto a school bus Wednesday morning. Carolyn Claudio, 43, of 335 Bank St., Batavia was charged with second-degree criminally using drug paraphernalia, seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and endangering the welfare of a child.

Police allege that during a search of Claudio's residence Wednesday, a small amount of cocaine and drug paraphernalia were found in the "living area" of the home where they would have been "easily accessible to the children." This is the same residence in which Claudio's 6-year-old son located the loaded handgun that he brought to school with him Wednesday morning. Carolyn Claudio will appear in court to answer the charges on Tuesday.

The boy's father, Juan Claudio Sr., 40, of 108 Jackson St., Batavia, received another charge of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Following the news reports of Juan Claudio's arrest, two Batavia residents came forward to claim that Claudio attempted to sell them a gun this past Saturday at a home in Batavia. When the two were shown the gun that the boy brought on the bus Wednesday, they confirmed that it was, in fact, the same gun that the father had offered for sale.

A report in the Daily News filed this morning by Scott DeSmit states that the boy found the ".22 caliber handgun" at his mother's home under her bed and "tucked inside a velvet Crown Royal whiskey pouch."

For more details, please see our previous coverage. You can also view the response from the city police and school superintendent in our video coverage.

Update at 3:47pm: We spoke with Batavia Det. Richard Schauf to find out more on the status of the two young children, the 6-year-old who brought the gun onto the school bus and his 7-year-old brother who had alerted the bus driver to that fact. Schauf told us that Carolyn Claudio could not be arraigned in court today as it was closed due to the weather. Both children "will remain in the custody of the mom," said Schauf. At least, for now.

The Department of Social Services is supervising the situation. They have been notified of the charges filed against Carolyn Claudio today. Whether they take the children away—"That's their call," said Schauf.

Try as they might, the city snowplows are having a difficult time keeping the roads clear. If you are driving on Main St. Batavia, it isn't too bad. But pretty much every side street gets filled with snow minutes after the plows have been through.

I'm not sure if it is good news or bad news, but it just came over the scanner that there is sleet starting to mix with the snow. This will limit the amount of blowing snow, but is going to potentially make it more slippery and make the snow that you have to shovel more heavy. 

DO NOT DRIVE ON COLLEGE ROAD TODAY!

I cannot stress this enough. I figured I would take the trip and attempt to get a photo of the college from the road. I couldn't go any faster than 5-10 miles per hour and literally couldn't see anything.

When I got close enough to the school, there was nothing but white. So I took a photo of my car in the middle of the road. Or, at least I think it was the middle.

You couldn't ask for more perfect timing on this one folks—that is, as long as you've already got the ingredients in the house. In this fifth episode of Cooking With the Dairy Princess, Anika Zuber shows us how to prepare a rich, white chocolate, hot chocolate.

Mmm.

The Daily News has posted the following notice on its web site:

DUE TO STORM: Your Friday paper may be delivered with Saturday's edition.

Also, here's the Daily's latest storm story by Scott DeSmit and Joanne Beck. Key bit of information, GCC was shut down today.

When Eric Herrmann's shift ended at Graham Manufacturing, he called his wife Heather for a ride home. The problem was, the family vehicle was trapped in the driveway and was not going to move.

Unable to get a ride, Herrmann decided to take the walk to his Clinton Street home. I noticed what looked like a snowman walking, so I stopped and took his photo for The Batavian. And of course, I gave him a ride home so the poor guy didn't freeze to death.

Update at 2:13pm: Route 77 (Alleghany Road) is still closed off in the Corfu area.

Emergency crews will temporarily close down Route 77 (Alleghany Road) north of the Thruway to clear a tractor trailer that was in an accident there, according to the Genesee County sheriff's dispatchers. Crews need to be able to get in and get out with the tractor trailer. The road should be opened back up shortly after the vehicle is removed. 

View Larger Map

We've had so many posts so far today that some of our earlier posts have flowed off the home page.

And we've got more posts coming from Brian Hillabush and Philip Anselmo.

If you're just hitting the site for the first time today, or might otherwise have missed some coverage, please scroll to the bottom of the page and click the "next" link on the pager to see any coverage you might have missed.

Also, we continue to welcome any weather pictures or stories you might want to post.

See the Flickr set below.

[flickr-photoset:id=72157611419199732,size=m]

UPDATE (3:00pm): More pictures added!

Nothing stops the United States postal service.

Even with massive amounts of snow, the mail is still on its way. I would guess that some carriers might be a little behind schedule because of the conditions, but they are out there.

 As you drive around, all over the place, you are going to see a lot of people out there shoveling their driveway in an attempt to either get their car out, or fight off the massive amounts that will be on the ground within hours.

Here we see June Weinert of Walnut St. trying to get the snow cleared out so she can get her car out of the driveway.

This gentleman's name is Martin Cross and he's trying to stay ahead of the snow fall in his Law St. driveway.

WBTA has posted an MP3 audio interview with Tom Nizoil, chief meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Buffalo.  He says snow is falling at a rate of one- to-two inches per hour and that traffic conditions will remain treacherous throughout the day.

We received the following notice of closures at the United Memorial Medical Center:

"Due to today’s severe winter weather the following outpatient services of United Memorial will be closed today:

• Batavia Family Care

• Tountas Family Care

• Tonawanda Seneca Family Care

• Byron Family Care

• The Corporate Health Center

• All services at the Jerome Center including laboratory and medical imaging

• Pembroke Diagnostic Center

• LeRoy Diagnostic Center

• Cardiac Rehab Services, EKG, Echo and Stress Testing"

A special section in this Sunday's Democrat & Chronicle will run down the details on speeding tickets: what to do when you get pulled over and what to do once you've got the ticket. Folks in Genesee County may want to pay close attention. Pembroke, it turns out, ranks third in number of tickets issued for the Thruway.

Pembroke, Genesee County, is the No. 3 spot on Interstate 90 for speeding tickets, according to a Democrat and Chronicle analysis of state Department of Motor Vehicle records. Last year, State Police issued almost 5,000 tickets resulting in convictions along the stretch of the Thruway in Genesee County; 1,738 were issued in Pembroke. Pembroke Town Court allows most speeders to plead to a lesser violation by mail.

Somehow, I don't think speeding will be a problem there today. Here are the current conditions at the Pembroke interchange:

Here's the view from the web cam at the I-90/Batavia Interchange.

 Driving through Alabama, I just noticed a man working on his snow plow in front of the Alabama post office.

I stopped to talk to him and found out that on day like today, the worst possible thing could happen .... he ran into electrical problems with the plow.

Drew Klotzbach, owns Alleghany Farm Service and takes care of clearing some of the area businesses in Alabama. That is, once he gets the plow fixed.

First post from the road. Haven't seen any accidents and nothing has come over the scanner yet, so that is a good thing. Based on this photo taken on Rt 63 in Alabama, it is strongly advised to stay at home.

There will be more updates from around Genesee County to follow.

Rochester's Democrat & Chronicle has posted a Google map studded with camera icons that each represent a traffic camera posted around the city of Rochester. Each camera refreshes the picture every few minutes. This is a useful service for folks commuting in and out of the city this morning and afternoon. Although, in the next hour or two, I imagine every camera will be showing about the same thing: white, and conditions around the city and on the roads back to Batavia should be about the same: crummy.

Oh yeah: Don't forget to check out our post from earlier this morning with a pair of live updating cameras posted at the Thruway interchanges with Route I-90 in Le Roy and Pembroke.

Today's featured home is on Roosevelt Ave. in Batavia. I believed it was the one recognized by the jaycees earlier in the week.

Lots of variety and color. Well done.