Mayor Zohran Mamdani: Since last night, New York City has been in near-blizzard conditions. So far, the storm has dropped 16 to 19 inches on most parts of our city, with parts of eastern Staten Island reporting over 24 inches of snow. It has also brought extreme winds, with gusts reaching up to 60 miles per hour. Judging from current forecasts, the worst has passed. Conditions have begun to moderate, but there is still more to come.
Snow is projected to linger through the afternoon, with another 1.5 to 2.5 inches expected by 8 p.m. Wind gusts are expected to remain as high as 40 miles per hour into the evening. New York remains in a state of emergency. The travel ban has ended today at noon, but a hazardous travel advisory remains in place through midnight tonight. I continue to encourage all non-emergency traffic—cars, trucks, scooters, and e-bikes—to remain off the roads.
We are plowing streets and doing everything we can to keep our roadways clear so that emergency vehicles can get through. Every vehicle that stays off the road makes that work that little bit easier. These are dangerous conditions. Not only is snow continuing to fall, accumulated snowfall and refreezing have made it hazardous to travel. If you can, remain indoors. If you must leave your home, please rely on public transit.
I am grateful for our tireless agency teams who have been working non-stop to prepare our city for this blizzard and to keep New York running. This has been a full-force winter weather response operation, with 2,600 [Department of Sanitation] workers deployed on every 12-hour shift and over 2,300 plows, including 700 salt spreaders, mobilized citywide. In addition, DSNY has employed 575 emergency snow shovelers across our city last night, with more than 800 shovelers on the morning shift today.
Despite the act of blizzard, they were able to clear over 1,600 crosswalks, 419 fire hydrants, and almost 900 bus stops overnight, and that does not include what they have cleared since this morning. Amidst this, DSNY has been hard at work to expand their supervision capacity for the snow shoveler program, and as of today, they can now deploy 1,800 New Yorkers per shift. Due to the historic nature of this blizzard, we've increased pay to $30 per hour. You can walk into any DSNY garage until 8 p.m. this evening and then starting again at 9 a.m. tomorrow. All you need to bring is two forms of ID to ensure you get paid.
In addition to DSNY, the DOT has also cleared over 1,300 sheltered bus stops so far. All of this is managed through DSNY's BladeRunner 2.0 System, which monitors plowing and salting in real time. You too can track their live progress via our plow tracker at nyc.gov/PlowNYC. As of 12:30 p.m., DSNY has distributed over 50 million pounds of salt and plowed over 99.5 percent of city streets at least once.
As heavy snow continues to fall, every single street in every single borough will be plowed as many times as necessary to make it safe for emergency travel. As I mentioned earlier, parts of Staten Island are being hit hardest by this winter storm. In addition to existing efforts, DSNY is deploying 65 further pieces of equipment to Staten Island, and the NYPD Tow Truck Task Force is now operating especially heavily in the borough to free stuck vehicles, which include MTA buses. Our teams will continue to salt again and again throughout the day. This work has been a testament to the whole of government coming together to tackle a shared challenge.
The NYPD Highway Patrol will continue escorting DSNY to facilitate the salting and plowing of our streets, and the Downed Trees Task Force has been coordinating across the five boroughs. Again, I'm imploring New Yorkers to stay off the roads. The fewer passenger and commercial vehicles need to be assisted, the quicker we can respond to plows and emergency vehicles. And if you can cook at home, please do so instead of ordering food to be delivered, given the conditions.
I hope our students enjoy their snow day today and stay warm and safe throughout, but I do have some tough news to share. School will be in-person tomorrow. You can still pelt me with snowballs when you see me. Alternate side parking will be suspended through the week. NYC Ferry remains suspended for the rest of today, while the Staten Island Ferry is running half-hour service through the day. A decision will be made on tomorrow's service for both the Staten Island and NYC Ferries later today.
All public libraries across the city remain closed today. An update on reopening tomorrow will be made and shared later this afternoon. City buildings will be back open to the public tomorrow for in-person city services. Code Blue remains in effect, and an Enhanced Code Blue has been extended through Wednesday morning. Throughout this storm, our outreach workers have continually canvassed all five boroughs, helping homeless New Yorkers find shelter. Last night, outreach workers made 79 placements.
I want to be very clear, if you need warmth and shelter, it is available to you. This morning, our Department of Social Services accelerated the opening of another 100 low-barrier stabilization beds in Upper Manhattan, building on the additional capacity we added during the historic cold snap a few weeks ago. Across our city, we have had 22 warming buses, 11 Health + Hospitals warming spaces and 13 school warming centers open.
Our Health + Hospitals mobile warming units have been redeployed to provide clinical assistance, warm food, and clothing. By this afternoon, we will have 15 mobile warming units citywide. Our OnPoint overdose prevention centers were also open all of last night and will remain open today and overnight tonight as well. I continue to ask New Yorkers to check in on those who may be struggling. If you see someone in need of warmth or shelter, please call 311 immediately so outreach workers can assist.
In a Code Blue, these 311 calls will be rerouted to 911. You can also call 311 directly from our LinkNYC kiosks or use them to find the locations of warming centers across the city. We are aware that there were power outages across the city, including over 11,000 New Yorkers in the Rockaways who were without power this morning. NYCEM dispatched field personnel to check conditions and make repairs. Power has already been restored to more than 8,000 of those New Yorkers. As a contingency, NYCEM has opened warming centers at Far Rockaway High School, Beach Channel High School, and P.S. 43.
For New Yorkers dealing with heat or hot water issues, call your landlord immediately. If you do not hear back promptly, please call 311. HPD staff is working overtime and is on call to help. NYCHA has deployed additional staff this weekend, including technical teams to respond to elevator, heat, and any other repair issues that may arise. If you are a NYCHA resident dealing with a non-emergency issue, please call 718-707-7771 or submit a work ticket through the MyNYCHA application.
Lyft began clearing operations at Citi Bike stations this morning and have cleared 20 stations as of 11:30 a.m. With additional vendors starting at different points throughout the day, we expect their progress to rapidly accelerate as the afternoon continues. And operational agencies have been working to clear fire hydrants, crosswalks and bus stops around their property as well.
While DSNY continues to prioritize snow response, there will be delays in collection. There will be no collection of any material today, February 23rd, or tomorrow, February 24th. We will provide an updated plan on trash collection by end of day tomorrow on what collection will look like for the rest of the week. When we share that plan, we will be prioritizing trash and compost. Recycling will continue to be delayed into the following week. Please hold your recycling and wait to put it out until next week, as you would after certain holidays.
Our mandate for property owners to clear four-foot-wide paths across all sidewalks remains in effect. We issued more than 4,000 violations after the last storm. We do not want to issue as many citations again. So please, if you are a property owner, do your part, clear the snow, and help make our city passable for our neighbors, especially those with disabilities.
For those shoveling, take it slow. This snow is exceptionally wet and heavy. Your health comes first. Please protect your back and your heart by working slowly, and [to] make sure that you're taking frequent breaks. Older adults should stay indoors and should avoid shoveling. The coastal flood warning for low-lying coastal parts of our city ended at 5 a.m. this morning. There are no current warnings issued for our coast flood zones.
For those in flood zones or basement apartments, Notify NYC has a special category to alert you in the event that flooding happens. You can sign up at nyc.gov/notify. I urge all New Yorkers to sign up for Notify NYC by texting NOTIFYNYC to 692-692 to receive immediate updates on forecasts and conditions. You can also visit nyc.gov/BeReady for more information. I know that this is a city full of people who do not like to sit still, and yet as the snow continues to fall and conditions remain dangerous, I am asking you to do just that.
Turn on that crackling fireplace YouTube video, call that relative whose WhatsApp you haven't responded to, make an enormous pot of soup and bring some to your neighbors upstairs. And above all, stay warm, stay inside, stay prepared, and stay safe. Thank you very much, and now we'll hear from our NYCEM Commissioner Christina Farrell.
Commissioner Christina Farrell, New York City Emergency Management: Thank you, mayor. We've been working around the clock with all of City government to respond to this blizzard. We are coordinating any resources and support needed to get the city running and keep New Yorkers safe. We've been here at the Emergency Operations Center since 6 a.m. yesterday morning, and we continue to work 24/7 on storm response. We have 50 different partners with us here, city agencies like [the] Police [Department], Fire [Department], Parks [Department], [Department of] Transportation, MTA, Port Authority, ConEd, PSEG and nonprofit partners.
We have also activated the citywide continuity of operations plan to ensure essential city services are continuing throughout the storm. We are coordinating with ConEd on real-time power conditions. Roughly 3,000 ConEd customers are currently without power across the city. ConEd crews are working on restoring service. As the mayor noticed, as he mentioned, the largest outage was in PSEG Long Island in the Rockaways. Much of that has been restored, and we do have the three warming centers open as long as they are needed.
The [NYPD] Tow Truck Task Force is activated and has already cleared many disabled vehicles from city streets, including 10 ambulances and at least one MTA bus. As noted, the Downed Tree Task Force is hard at work with the Parks Department and emergency crews responding to reports of downed trees and hazardous conditions. We've received more than 300 reports of downed trees so far.
We expect more as people start to head out of their homes and report conditions around their neighbors. If there are trees out around the city, you can call 311 and report those downed trees. Our neighborhood partners that are part of our Strengthening Communities program activated ahead of this storm, as they did with the other storms last month, and we have 29 neighborhood networks who are out supporting local response operations.
Our New York City Community Emergency Response Team volunteers are activated. They're assisting throughout the city to safely clear hydrants to support potential Fire Department operations. Thank you once again to all our CERT members hard at work across the city. Our emergency management field responders have been all over the city 24/7 responding to incidents and weather conditions, power outages, and coastal flooding concerns. We are coordinating with the Port Authority on airport status. Flights were suspended overnight and travelers should confirm directly with their airline for updates. We are keeping thousands of city, state and regional partners informed through non-stop interagency calls with public and private sector partners and businesses, utility providers, transportation agencies, nonprofit and faith-based institutions and elected officials.
Today is a good day to stay inside or walk within your neighborhood so Sanitation and other agencies can keep working on the roads and on other passageways. Please check in on your neighbors. This has been a brutal winter, and it continues to be tough. It's always nice to stop by or call someone to see how they're doing, if they need anything, especially seniors, people with disability and medical needs, and family members.
We're all New Yorkers and we'll continue to take care of each other. As has been noted, everyone should be signed up for Notify NYC. Over the last couple days of this storm, more than 45,000 New Yorkers have joined the more than 1.4 million New Yorkers who are already signed up. You can also stay in the know and receive messages in 14 languages, including American Sign Language.
We continue to be focused on this storm, but sad to say there could be additional precipitation as early as Wednesday, so we are also preparing for potential smaller amounts of additional snow later this week. We'll be here working hard for all New Yorkers as this snow-heavy winter continues.
Acting Commissioner Javier Lojan, Department of Sanitation: Good afternoon. As the mayor said, we have 2,600 Sanitation workers [who are] out there on every shift, working 12-hour shifts, day and night, night and day, for as long as necessary to get our city moving safely. They are operating 700 salt spreaders and more than 2,200 snowplows, working to clear streets, highways, and protected bike lanes from snow and ice, so that they are passable as soon as possible.
These men and women are assisted by more than 1,400 emergency snow shovelers, again working on both night and day shifts. Emergency snow shovelers began clearing pedestrian infrastructure last night, far sooner than in previous storms, and they are continuing this work today and in the coming days.
Additionally, our partners in City government — DEP, DOT, Parks, and [the] NYPD — are also assisting with snow-clearing efforts, and hundreds of pieces of outside equipment from these agencies are out there now alongside DSNY. We are actively employing new tracking mechanisms to oversee the clearing of unsheltered bus stops, crosswalks and fire hydrants. While these areas are the responsibility of the property owner, we know that the safety of all who use our sidewalks is paramount, and we are stepping in immediately to clear more of the city than ever before. But remember, it is snowing now, and the snow will continue to accumulate on those areas.
Fortunately, temperatures are forecast to be much warmer than they were in the days following Winter Storm Fern, and that will help in snow clearing in the coming days. It also makes our salting operations more effective but make no mistake; I have been with this department since 1999, and this is one of the biggest snow events I've ever seen. These massive snow totals are coupled with strong winds, meaning massive snow drifts across the city, as we plow streets across five boroughs. Many of them are covered in snow almost immediately.
When the snow does stop falling this evening, property owners will be required to clear a four-foot path along sidewalks wide enough for pedestrians, wheelchairs and strollers to pass. If a property sidewalks includes an unsheltered bus stop or curb ramp, property owners are required to clear this as well. Again, while we are stepping in to assist in this work, we will be issuing summonses after the storm for property owners who do not meet this responsibility to keep their neighbors safe.
And as snow gives us a beautiful white blanket across our city, please, please know that this is not an excuse to litter or to not clean up after your dog. We all deserve a clean city. Finally, New Yorkers should know, DSNY is working to ensure your safety. While the travel ban is no longer in effect, please do your part for yourself and for the strongest by staying off the roads while we continue our operations.
If you absolutely must drive, please drive slowly, safely and carefully. Conditions today may continue to be dangerous. Stay inside, stay safe and follow for updates on social media or via Notify NYC. Thank you.
Chancellor Kamar H. Samuels, New York City Public Schools: Good afternoon. Hope everyone's staying indoors, staying safe [and] staying cozy. I'd like to once again thank our school communities, students, families and staff for their flexibility and understanding as the city responded to this blizzard. I'm pleased to announce that based on clear guidance and clear assessment of conditions, all schools will be fully open and operational tomorrow.
I want to recognize facilities, custodial and school teams who've been working around the clock to remove snow and ice, clear paths and prepare classrooms for [our] students' return [to class]. The team efforts have been nothing short of extraordinary. Normal programming and extracurricular activities will resume. The safety and well-being of our students and staff is our top priority, and we will continue to monitor conditions closely. I hope everyone had a good extended holiday break and look forward to resuming my school visits and hearing about everyone's snow day tomorrow. Now, it's okay for you to pelt me as well, but I thank you all for your cooperation.
Janno Lieber, CEO and Chair, MTA: All right, I'm from the MTA, so I don't have to ask to get pelted. Listen, Mayor Mamdani, I got to thank you for all the city's doing to collaborate with the MTA, in particular, the commitment, as evidenced by your words and [from] the sanitation commissioner’s, with the commitment that you and the emphasis you've given to making sure that the bus stops are clear. Really a big step. Listen, just like last time, the one constant in this episode has been amazing, which is the MTA workforce. I got to thank everyone who's been out front on the front lines for the MTA throughout the blizzard. The preparations that all of you contributed to really have made a difference. We do it because New York City is the city that never stops, and we all heard the governor and the mayor rightfully urging folks to stay inside. But there are essential workers; there are nurses, [and] there are people of all kinds who have to show up to support the response to this weather event.
In other places, you can shut down mass transit, and it may not make a difference, but here, there are a lot of people who depend on it come hell or high water. I was talking to Governor Hochul this morning and she wanted to make sure that everybody — as I said, essential workers in particular — could move around if they needed to and if they were supposed to be able to do that. And I'm glad to say that the MTA was able — has been able — to rise to the occasion on a day when most New Yorkers rightfully stayed off the streets observing the mayor's travel ban and the travel bans in adjacent counties.
Transit picks up the slack. There are people on the subway at 3, 4, 5 a.m., and they had trains waiting for them. The subway, the whole system in fact, has been operating, albeit with delays and adjustments to service. I came over here on the subway from lower Manhattan, and the system, as I said, was operating. We had a frozen switch here and there. There was a power outage that impacted the Rockaways, but given the magnitude of this storm, the subways team has done an incredible job, especially with those outdoor parts of the system.
Now, the buses have been running as well with delays and some detours as the plowing makes progress. There have been isolated problem areas where buses have gotten stuck, but we are working with the team that the mayor has assembled to address those particular areas, and, as I said, buses are rolling. As predicted, Long Island was hit really hard, which is why early this morning we did make the responsible decision to suspend Long Island Railroad service so we could focus on clearing the snow. The last thing we want to do is have anybody stranded en route anywhere, and we've been clearing the snow with the work trains and actually running trains on the tracks at Long Island just to keep the tracks clear of ice. I'm glad there weren't hundreds of Long Islanders who were on board those trains at risk of getting stuck. So, we need to wait for things to slow down in Long Island, where the winds have continued, and the accumulations have continued, before we can safely set a time for the resumption of service. We are planning to run some service on Long Island Railroad tomorrow, but exactly how much is still a work in progress.
Meantime, the Metro-North operation is continuing, albeit with reduced service. Tomorrow, we're planning to run what we call an enhanced Saturday program, which is about two-thirds of normal weekday service. As always, we say to our customers, please stay tuned to all of our customer service channels and the latest information on the MTA app, the TrainTime app, social media, and especially the MTA service alerts system. So, thank you again to the mayor and to the governor who’s been watching it very closely and has been in touch with the MTA throughout.
Question: Mr. Mayor, I want to ask you a little bit about the travel ban, which, anecdotally at least, kept a lot of privately-owned vehicles off of the public roadways, making those roadways a lot safer and a lot easier for the rest of the people to do their job for the city. So, two quick questions on that. One, why not extend it as Westchester did? And two, have you ever thought about maybe extending that kind of thing to other emergency situations, like where public safety is a paramount, like New Year's Eve, Halloween, other things — the World Cup coming?
Mayor Mamdani: I can tell you that, for right now, my focus is on this blizzard and this storm. However, following the conclusion of it, it is always an opportunity to reflect on longer-standing city policy. On the first part of your question, we have seen that the worst of the impacts of this blizzard have — especially relating to our ability to manage vehicular traffic — have passed.
However, these continue to be hazardous, which is why we still have a hazardous travel advisory in place. Now, we also know that this storm has hit different parts of the city in different ways. We're looking at average totals in most neighborhoods of 16 to 19 inches, and then we're looking at parts of eastern Staten Island, and we see 24 inches. So, in terms of a citywide approach, it is still one where we have the travel advisory. The ban has come to an end. However, we are also looking to redeploy our resources to make sure that every neighborhood can recover as quickly.
Question: Two quick questions. On the travel ban, was anyone actually issued a misdemeanor for violating it last night? And then secondly, you mentioned 79 homeless-shelter placements. Do you have any info on when people did accept shelter, and were there any fatalities?
Mayor Mamdani: So, I will start on your second question and then go into your first. So, as of now, we are not aware of any deaths related to this blizzard on our city's streets or in public areas. And overnight, as you had mentioned, DHS made close to 80 placements. These were placements that [were] done as a result of their outreach across all five boroughs, and they were placements into low-barrier shelters as well as warming centers. These are in addition to the 85 or so placements that were made the night before that I had referred to in yesterday's press conference. In terms of your first question, we can get back to you on the question of violations.
Question: Just a quick addition to that — Have there been any involuntary removals done so far during this storm?
Mayor Mamdani: Not during this blizzard.
Question: I had a question about the school cancellation. Can you explain a little bit more the thought process behind this? Like, are students — do they normally take their electronic devices with them when they go for a vacation? Did the city remind them to do so before this one, you know, in case something like this would happen? And I guess I'm asking because before the last storm, you talked about how tight the schedule is and how, you know, there's really not a lot of room for a margin of error.
Mayor Mamdani: It is exactly as you say in terms of the tightness we have with the schedule we're operating under. This is a schedule that is a reflection of state law that mandates 180 days of instruction. And the confluence of circumstances we were facing would create what you might call the perfect storm, between a historic blizzard — the first that we've seen in 10 years — coupled with the fact that students and teachers had been away for a break. Which both meant that there were a number of students and teachers who would potentially be stranded in trying to come back into the city for Monday schooling. But also, that unlike in the prior winter storm — where we could take the steps in advance on Friday or Thursday to ensure that we were sending students home with their devices — this was all being done in response to a previously scheduled break. All those things together brought us to the conclusion that we should apply for a waiver from the state. And we are incredibly grateful to the state commissioner of education for having granted that waiver.
Question: Are you concerned about people being able to get to school buildings tomorrow, teachers and staff — some of the teachers who live in the surrounding area — are there concerns about the roadways tomorrow morning?
Mayor Mamdani: So, I will pass it over to Kevin in a moment to speak a little bit more specifically to that. But what I will tell you is I'm incredibly appreciative of the fact that we've had more than 8,000 DOE workers who have been doing the preparation work for exactly this purpose. Yesterday, today, cleaning out and making sure that our schools are ready for our students and they're also ready to serve them with a warm meal.
Kevin Moran, Acting Deputy Chancellor for Operations: I appreciate the thoughtful question. Yesterday we staffed our Emergency Operations Center for 24/7 in person. And we made sure we deployed all 8,000 employees to make sure that we're clearing every bit of our school property across our 1,400 physical properties. We definitely know that mass transit tomorrow and our school buses will be up and running. So, we anticipate all our students and staff make every effort to get to school tomorrow. But we will make sure we're down to asphalt and concrete sidewalks at every school. And our monitoring keeps going through the Emergency Operations Center tonight. So, we're staffed and ready for tomorrow.
Question: Mr. Mayor, I heard you and your other agency heads say that even though the responsibility for sidewalks and bus stops would be a vendor or a private landlord, city workers are doing the job of keeping them clear. Was that a lesson learned from last time when a lot of New Yorkers — I'll say, including myself — [were] complaining, [that they] couldn't cross the street, bus stop, block, corners, block? Is this the lesson learned that, just get it done and then fight with the private landlord or the vendor later?
Mayor Mamdani: Part of this is a reflection of the fact that we have to ensure that each and every New Yorker is able to navigate their own city, no matter what their mode of transit is. And that means if they're a pedestrian, if they're a cyclist, if they're riding the bus, taking the train, or if they're driving their car. And like you said, Dan, last time around, we saw around 4,000 citations being issued to property owners for the violation of this requirement. However, we know the importance of ensuring that these crosswalks, these sidewalks, are not just passable in a technical sense, but also passable with a four-foot [width] so that New Yorkers who are using wheelchairs or with a stroller, that they can actually get around.
And so, I'm incredibly thankful, frankly, to the hardworking men and women of DSNY, because what they've been doing, alongside staffing up and running these 2,600-person 12-hour shifts, is also expanding their supervision capacity for the emergency snow shoveler program. Because that's a program that is focusing predominantly on crosswalks, sidewalks, [and] unsheltered bus stops. And thanks to their work, we've already been able to more than double the number of New Yorkers who are doing that, and we are looking to see that number continue to increase given their newfound capacity of 1,800 per shift.
Question: I'm just wondering, on homeless encampments, do you have any plans to suspend the seven-day window between when you're notified and then when they're taken off the street? And do you have any regrets about how you handled the homeless situation last time?
Mayor Mamdani: So, there are no cleanups that will take place over the course of the blizzard. The blizzard is a time when our focus should not be on physical infrastructure but on people and on getting them indoors. And I'm incredibly thankful, frankly, to the more than 500 outreach workers who have been traversing our city to look to connect homeless New Yorkers with their services and the support that they need. And I can tell you that the last storm was one of the first storms that our city had seen in quite some time. And we took a hard look at everything that worked and started it from the first day of this blizzard response and then took a sense of what we can enhance across the board, because we're always looking to hold ourselves to a standard of excellence.
And so, that is also why we have started the work of geotagging every single bus shelter and crosswalk. That's also why we have looked to do sustained outreach of expanding the emergency snow shoveler program to supplement the city's work. And it's also why, frankly, that we made the decision to bring in additional equipment in advance of the storm, because what we're looking at — you know, the last time we thought we were going to get a blizzard was 2017, and it didn't come to materialize. The year before that we actually had one. This is of that nature. This has parts of our city in 24 inches of snow. It requires us doing everything we can to respond.
Question: I also have a follow-up on the removals. You mentioned that DHS was in charge of the 79 that were placed. Were there any placements made by the NYPD? I know you said there were no involuntary removals. Can you just clarify that?
Mayor Mamdani: We can get back to you on that. I can tell you that the NYPD has made a number of placements in response to the prior storm and has been a critical part of the first responders that we have.
Question: So, you mentioned there's been no fatalities in this storm. Do you attribute that to a different approach or because the cold wasn't as much of a factor?
Mayor Mamdani: I think we — when we're talking about the previous storm, we're talking about a level of arctic conditions that the city had not seen for many, many years. And unlike in prior storms, after the snowfall, there wasn't an increase in temperature. Even this time around, though it is a blizzard, one of the few pieces of good news is that we will see 40-degree weather sometime in this week.
The previous time, we were seeing sub-freezing weather for day after day after day. There was a period when it was colder in New York City than it was in Antarctica. And that is the chief reason that the city was facing an extended period of hazardous conditions. And this time around, we're seeing it'll be a much shorter runway. And also, we're always looking to enhance the work that we're doing to ensure that New Yorkers are getting exactly the kind of service and response they deserve. Thank you.
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