Mayor de Blasio bungled the second winter storm of his administration when the snow hit a few hours earlier than expected Tuesday — causing a rash of car crashes and snarling traffic across the city.
The snow had stopped by Wednesday but bone-chilling temperatures remained, with the wind chill making it feel as low as 8 degrees below zero, according to the National Weather Service. The high is expected to reach 19 degrees, but at night that could drop to just 7.
All NYC public schools are open, but parents were being urged to “exercise their own judgment” when taking their children to school.
Most subway lines were running normally, but the temperatures did affect some mass transit in the tri-state area:
- There are no 6 express trains in The Bronx because of the weather.
- The Long Island Railroad is on a weekend schedule.
- NJ Transit is on a weekend schedule.
- Metro-North Railroad officials say trains on the New Haven, Harlem and Hudson lines are operating on a regular weekday schedule, but commuters should expect some delays after a storm dumped up to a foot or more of snow in parts of Connecticut and New York.
- There is a speed reduction on the New Jersey Turnpike.
On Tuesday, the flakes began to fall at around 8 a.m., and sanitation trucks were slow to hit the streets and spread enough salt to keep them passable.
They largely ignored the well-heeled Upper East Side until nearly 5 inches fell — according to the city’s PlowNYC Web site — and by then, buses were stranded and people could barely cross the streets.
“I can’t believe de Blasio could do this. He is putting everyone in danger,” said Barbara Tamerin, 70, who had to use snowshoes and ski poles to navigate the street. “What is he thinking? I can barely get around — and I’m on snowshoes!”
Residents called it a revenge-inspired reversal of de Blasio’s oft-repeated “Tale of Two Cities” slam against then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who owns a town house on East 79th Street.
“The Upper East Side did not vote for [de Blasio],” said lifelong resident Molly Jong Fast, daughter of famed novelist Erica Jong.
She said de Blasio “is trying to get us back.”
In other storm-related chaos:
- A parade of idled buses with lighted “Not In Service” signs stretched down Lexington Avenue for three blocks because the lead bus got stuck in the snow near East 83rd Street.
- Two cops were sent to the hospital with minor injuries when a livery car slid through an intersection and smashed into an NYPD SUV in upper Manhattan.
- There was a five-car collision and major backup on the West Side Highway during the morning rush. In the afternoon, the FDR Drive came to a complete standstill as suburban commuters tried to flee the increasingly snowbound city.
- The city’s 311 help line had been swamped by nearly 125,000 calls as of 3 p.m. The daily average is only 50,000. Hundreds of callers demanded snow and ice removal, a spokeswoman said.
- Emergency calls to the EMS also spiked, forcing longer response times and prompting officials to put on hold callers complaining about illnesses and minor injuries.
- Thousands of passengers were stranded amid 718 flight cancellations at La Guardia Airport, 592 at JFK and 461 at Newark.
- Gov. Cuomo declared a state of emergency for New York City, Long Island and Westchester and Rockland counties shortly after 5 p.m.
A Sanitation Department plow operator confirmed that officials were blindsided when the snow began falling in the heart of the morning rush instead of 11 a.m. or noon, as had been forecast.
“It definitely caught us by surprise. This happened three or four hours earlier than we thought,” the driver said. “No one was expecting this.”
At a morning news conference, de Blasio insisted “I don’t think anyone was caught off-guard.”
Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty, at an evening press briefing, defended the handling of the Upper East Side — claiming that one spreader had a busted GPS and was not reporting progress to the PlowNYC Web site.
He blamed stalled traffic for the lack of plowing in the neighborhood, saying “nothing was moving in the area,” disregarding the reason why.
At the earlier press conference, he said, “The salt spreaders can’t hit every block immediately.”
De Blasio spokeswoman Marti Adams said, “The city does not dispatch plows until there is two inches of accumulation.
“We had spreaders out at 8 a.m. Tuesday, and once snow accumulated to two inches, plows were deployed to neighborhoods in all five boroughs — including the Upper East Side — and they will continue to work through the night.”
Meanwhile, in de Blasio’s Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn, the mayor’s block was plowed by mid-afternoon.
Neighbor Amber Moran, 21, who works as a nanny, laughed when she heard the Upper East Side remained buried.
“It’s good to see Brooklyn finally getting this attention and not Bloomberg’s neighborhood,” she said.
“I’m glad we’re getting this treatment . . . It’s about time!”
Passengers at local airports were frustrated by the delays and cancellations. “It’s crazy,” said Sheila Fis of Long Island, who was stranded at JFK with her 5-year-old son.
“I’m stuck here for two days. I’m trying to call for a ride back, but no one is willing to drive in this.”
The snow tapered off in the five boroughs at around 10 p.m. Tuesday, leaving totals of eight to 10 inches.
High temperatures for Wednesday were expected to reach only 13 degrees. Steady winds were forecast to make it feel below zero, AccuWeather meteorologist Frank Strait said.
Additional reporting by Rebecca Harshbarger, Yoav Gonen and Kevin Sheehan
