Mayor Zohran Mamdani: Hello, New York. This morning, a mix of snow and rain began to fall across our city. Over the course of the day, conditions are predicted to grow increasingly more severe, with the heaviest snow falling between 9 p.m. tonight and 9 a.m. tomorrow morning. Snowfall will become more moderate as Monday progresses, tapering off around 8 p.m. In total, the storm is projected to drop between 18 and 24 inches across New York City, coming up to 28 inches in certain areas.
New Yorkers should also expect dangerous winds. Later today, they are predicted to reach 35 mph, with peak speeds of 40 mph and 60 mph isolated gusts occurring tomorrow morning around 8 a.m. These are blizzard conditions. New York City has not faced a storm of this scale in the last decade. As a result, we expect to see moderate coastal flooding of up to 2.5 feet during high tide, with the chance of it increasing to 3 feet along Staten Island, the Rockaways, and The Battery. If you are in a coastal area that normally floods during tide cycles, you may see flooding.
Please stay alert and make sure to move cars ahead of high tide to higher ground. If you live in a basement apartment, Notify NYC has a special category for you. You can sign up for the basement alert group at nyc.gov/notify. We have activated additional high-water rescue teams should flooding grow dire, and DEP will also be inspecting catch basins to make sure that water can drain properly. If you see a clogged catch basin, please call 311 to prevent street flooding.
Additionally, temperatures dropping into the 20s overnight will result in slippery streets, sidewalks, and extremely hazardous conditions across our city. Due to these factors, we are declaring a state of emergency and instituting a travel ban starting at 9 p.m. this evening and ending at 12 p.m. tomorrow. This state of emergency closes the streets, highways, and bridges of New York City for all traffic: cars, trucks, scooters, and e-bikes, with some specific exemptions for essential and emergency movement. We are asking New Yorkers to avoid all non-essential travel.
Please, for your safety, stay home, stay inside, and stay off the roads. Hazardous conditions put delivery workers, drivers, and restaurant staff at risk. If you can do so, please look out for your fellow New Yorkers and prepare meals at home until the weather improves.
While the continuity of our children's education is of the utmost importance to ensure the safety of students, parents, and teachers throughout this storm, schools will be closed tomorrow. This will be New York City's first old-school snow day since 2019. The state requires us to conduct 180 days of education in a calendar year. However, we believe that there [is] a unique set of extenuating circumstances for tomorrow's education. We shared this with the State Education [Department] commissioner earlier this morning, and she has granted us a waiver for which we are incredibly thankful. And to kids across New York City, you have a very serious mission if you choose to accept it. Stay cozy.
Across the city, other non-essential city offices and services, including our libraries, will also be closed to the public. The Staten Island and NYC Ferry will discontinue service beginning at 5 p.m. this evening and restart late Monday morning. Alternate side parking will be suspended tomorrow. Our agency teams have been working around the clock to ready our city for this storm. We are taking every precaution and are prepared for the intense volume of snow to come.
Code Blue is in effect, with outreach workers canvassing all five boroughs 24/7 and helping homeless New Yorkers come inside. Just last night, these outreach workers made 86 placements, bringing homeless New Yorkers inside to safety. Every New Yorker seeking warmth and shelter will be able to find it in our city. We have 22 warming buses, 11 Health + Hospitals warming spaces, and 13 school warming centers open across our city. We have also redeployed our Health + Hospitals mobile warming unit to provide medical attention, food, and additional support to those who need it.
Our on-point overdose prevention centers will also remain open overnight tonight. You can find the location of a warming center near you and the locations of all warming centers across our city at any LinkNYC kiosk or by calling 311. I ask that New Yorkers continue to keep an eye out for neighbors in need. If you see a New Yorker in need of warmth or shelter, please call 311 immediately so our outreach workers can assist.
As part of our Code Blue protocol, the call will be rerouted to 911. To seek help for yourself or others, you can also call 311 directly from a LinkNYC kiosk. For those struggling with heat or hot water issues, call your landlord immediately, and if you do not hear back in a timely manner, contact 311. Our HPD staff is working overtime and is at the ready to help. NYCHA residents who require assistance with non-emergency issues should call 718-707-7771. You can also submit a work ticket through the MyNYCHA application.
NYCHA has mobilized additional resources this weekend, including extra technical teams deployed across elevator, heat and any other repair issues that may arise. 2,600 DSNY workers have begun working in 12-hour shifts. Our fleet of 700 salt spreaders has been dispatched across the city, and over 2,200 plowing vehicles will begin their work once more than two inches of snow have fallen. You can track their progress in real time once snow has accumulated two inches via our online plow tracker, accessible at nyc.gov/PlowNYC. NYPD Highway Patrol will be escorting DSNY to aid the salting and plowing of streets. The NYPD Tow Truck Task Force has also been activated. Tow trucks will be pre-staged across the city to assist any motorists who become stuck. DSNY has also contacted emergency snow shovelers, expanding the pool of additional shovelers through sustained outreach over the last few weeks, and 1,000 are ready to go into the field over the course of this event.
To preemptively clear sidewalks and streets before the storm reaches its apex, we've added an additional shoveling shift this evening, with 300 shovelers beginning at 8 p.m. tonight. 33 DSNY vans and two agency buses will be used to quickly transport shovelers where they're needed. While DSNY focuses their efforts on keeping streets clear and safe, New Yorkers can expect garbage and recycling collection to be delayed by at least one day. If Monday is your recycling collection day, we are asking New Yorkers to hold that material inside for the following week if you are able, just as you do after certain holidays.
To more efficiently and effectively clear out our bus stops, crosswalks, and pedestrian ramps, we have expanded our geo-coded tracking system of these areas. Additional operational agencies will be clearing fire hydrants, crosswalks, and bus stops on or around their property as well. To aid New Yorkers with disabilities throughout this period, four-foot-wide paths must be cleared across all sidewalks to accommodate wheelchairs and other mobility devices. This is an existing mandate.
Property owners, it is your responsibility. In the last storm, DSNY issued more than 4,000 violations. I want to be clear, our interest is not in issuing violations. It is in finding compliance. And finally, I want to warn New Yorkers: the snow will be especially wet and heavy and will be more strenuous to clear. Please exercise caution as you dig out vehicles and paths. Take regular breaks and only clear snow if you are physically able to do so.
I encourage all New Yorkers to sign up for Notify NYC to receive regular emergency updates from the city. You can do so by texting NOTIFYNYC to 692-692. You can also visit nyc.gov/Be Ready for more information. Once again, New York, stay warm, stay inside, stay prepared, and stay safe. Thank you very much. We will now be hearing from our NYCEM commissioner, Christina Farrell.
Commissioner Christina Farrell, New York City Emergency Management: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm Christina Farrell, commissioner of New York City Emergency Management. As the mayor said, we have been working around the clock to keep New Yorkers informed and prepared for today's blizzard. We are in constant communication with the National Weather Service. We're keeping New Yorkers informed with updates on weather conditions through Notify NYC.
Our Emergency Operations Center is activated with 50 city, state, and regional agencies and partners. We are monitoring the weather and impacts to the city, supporting warming buses and sheltering for New Yorkers, monitoring roadway and mass transit conditions, ensuring access for plows and emergency services, and coordinating public messaging to keep you all informed. We have lots of operations and support across City government.
The Tow Truck Task Force has been activated to quickly remove disabled vehicles from city streets. The Downed Tree Task Force has been placed on standby to coordinate post-storm cleanup. We are hosting dozens of interagency calls with city and state agencies, regional partners, health and medical organizations, and public and private partners to coordinate the city's storm readiness.
We've connected with thousands of groups, organizations, and partners across the city to keep everyone up-to-date and connected. We are coordinating with ConEd and other utilities to maintain real-time status updates on power conditions [and] the Port Authority to monitor conditions at New York City airports, and we're conducting extensive outreach to the New York City elected officials.
New York City Community Emergency Response Team volunteers have been activated to assist with snow measurement, fire hydrant clearing, and storm grate cleaning. Our Strengthen Communities teams, networks of neighborhood groups, are helping to support their local communities.
We want all New Yorkers to stay safe during the dangerous blizzard conditions through tomorrow morning. Please stay off the roads. Look out for your neighbors and friends, especially the elderly and those with disabilities and special medical needs. Please check in on anyone who may need assistance.
As has been noted, for information and updates on weather and travel conditions, sign up for Notify NYC for updates in up to 14 languages, including American Sign Language. Thank you.
Acting Commissioner Javier Lojan, Department of Sanitation: Good morning. Less than a month after the [last] winter storm [formed], we are now seeing a second significant snowfall across the city, a storm that may rival or surpass Jonas, the Boxing Day Blizzard, and so many others that I have faced in my decades-long career with New York's Strongest.
Our response to this storm is well on the way, and we are employing several new strategies to get our city fully clear and accessible faster than ever. We are in full force operation now. At 6 a.m. this morning, 2,600 sanitation workers reported to their garages and will work until 6 p.m. tonight. An additional cruise of 2,600 Sanitation workers will report for another 12-hour overnight shift and will continue this on. These 12-hour shifts will continue as long as necessary to get our city moving safely.
In the last 24 hours, these Sanitation workers have fitted all vehicles with plows and chains, ready to be deployed as soon as we have two inches of snow, which we expect this afternoon. In addition, we have 700 salt spreaders filled and prepositioned across the city, ready to start rolling the second the weather turns from rain to snow. As always, we have hundreds of millions of pounds of salt on hand, and fortunately, weather conditions are predicted to be very favorable toward making the salt effective on our roads. Since Winter Storm Fern, we [have] engaged in significant outreach, and we expect to have nearly double the number of paid emergency snow shovelers reporting to work.
More than a thousand emergency snow shovels will be working on both night and day shifts. The first shift begins tonight, while the snow is still underway. This means we will be clearing pedestrian infrastructure far sooner than in previous storms. Our partners in City government—DEP, DOT, Parks, and NYPD—are assisting with snow-clearing efforts beginning today, and hundreds of pieces of outside equipment have been called into work, days earlier than in prior storms. This includes tow trucks, large front-end loaders, and specialized equipment for clearing crosswalks. We have also employed new tracking mechanisms in place to effectively and efficiently oversee clearance 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 prepared to step in immediately to clear more of the city than ever before. That said, I want to be clear to all New Yorkers. Clearing snow and ice from the sidewalk is the responsibility of the adjacent property owner. Property owners must maintain a four-foot path to allow a stroller or a wheelchair to pass, and if the property sidewalks include an unsheltered bus stop or curb ramp, property owners are required to clear this as well.
Make no mistake, we will be issuing summons after the storm for property owners who do not meet this responsibility to keep their neighbors safe. We remind all New Yorkers that the same Sanitation workers fighting snow are the people who pick up your trash, and residents will see delays for at least the first few days after the storm. If Monday is your recycling collection day, please hold that material inside for the following week if you are able, just like after some holidays. We will prioritize the collection of the trash and compost, as these are the items that can produce odors and attract rodents.
Rest assured, DSNY is on its way, and we do ask for patience with collection operations. For the small number of residents who receive collection service in alleyways, alley service is suspended for this week. Please place your material curbside and again expect delays as in the rest of the city. The forecast for the storm accelerated quickly, but thanks to the careful preparation and decades of experience, we are ready as always.
Remember that snow is not an excuse to litter or to not clean up after your dog. It is illegal and inconsiderate to your neighbors. We all deserve a clean city. Finally, New Yorkers should know DSNY is working to ensure your safety. Do your part both for yourself and for the strongest by staying off the roads during active precipitation, or if you absolutely must drive, do so by doing so slowly, safely, and carefully. Conditions tonight may be very dangerous. Stay inside, stay safe, and if you are a property owner, get those shovels ready. Thank you.
Chancellor Kamar H. Samuels, New York City Public Schools: Good afternoon. I have to start by being honest. I'm trying to figure out how this Jamaican chancellor figured out how to get five related press conferences [about] snow within his first 60 days. As always, the safety and security of our students and families is our number one priority. Timing is everything, and this storm is arriving just as our spring break is ending. Students and staff have been out of buildings for the last week, and many are still out of town and out of the country.
Given this, along with the severe nature of this weather event, we do not believe providing remote instruction tomorrow would be effective. In addition, schools couldn't send students home with devices before the break as normally they would in anticipation of inclement weather. These circumstances created the perfect storm, and [to] make a pivot to remote [is] very difficult for families and students.
So, we've been working with the State Education Department commissioner and have been granted a waiver that will enable us to give our students their first snow day in years, approved by my 11th grader at home. In addition to giving our facilities team more time to clear the expected nearly two feet of snow and prepare our buildings, this will also help us ensure that our staff and families who spent their break traveling are able to return home safely and that everyone can prioritize their safety tomorrow.
We also are using this time to support our agency partners by opening up 13 of our schools as warming centers so that no New Yorker has to worry about where to go during the blizzard. I'm extremely proud of the work and dedication once again shown by our entire school system. Thank you to our families for your flexibility. Stay safe, stay warm. I, for one, on brand, might be watching Cool Runnings or something like that, considering the Winter Olympics, and we will see you soon when schools reopen.
Question: Mayor Mamdani, and I guess for the schools chancellor, just to clarify, the waiver means there will be 99 days of instruction this year that will not have to be added on. Is that correct?
Mayor Mamdani: Yes, and that this city will not have to pay a fiscal penalty.
Question: And is there any indication about whether this would extend into Tuesday or if there would be remote school on Tuesday if conditions continue? I know things are supposed to warm up by Wednesday, but I don't know if the schools chancellor wants to talk about if perhaps there would be a second day or [if] they would pivot to remote.
Mayor Mamdani: At this time what we're able to share is about our plans for Monday. However, we're going to be doing everything within our power across all of City government to respond to the storm as quickly as possible.
Question: Can you talk to us about—there's been this controversy over the snow laborers and the sort of [thing that] some see as [an] onerous need to have documentation. Can you just talk about if that's new and what you make of the controversy?
Mayor Mamdani: This is all long-standing. This is a long-standing program and long-standing requirement, and this is a way that New Yorkers get paid to shovel snow in assistance with the city's response to a winter storm event.
Federal law requires that employers get authorization and documentation to pay people for their work. We are not allowed to just cut checks to individuals for their work, and these are the policies that we've had in place, but I understand that for many it's the first time that they've ever heard about it.
Question: Just following up on my question from yesterday regarding the snow shovelers. Any word on the compensation? That's my first question. And secondly, we saw the death toll from the last snowstorm. How are you ensuring that all homeless New Yorkers are back in[side]?
Mayor Mamdani: So, I'll start with your first question, and I'll go into your second one. So, the starting pay for emergency snow shovelers is about $19 an hour. After they work 40 hours through a week, that then increases to about $28 an hour. And thanks to the work of DSNY and so many others, we have expanded the pool of emergency snow shovelers. In the previous storm, we were looking at about 500 emergency snow shovelers. Now, that pool has expanded to about 1,400.
And you heard the commissioner [talk] about plans for how the first 1,000 of them are going to be deployed between this evening and tomorrow morning. And for our approach during this weather to homeless New Yorkers, we have put our city in an Enhanced Code Blue. Now what that means is that not only are we going to be rerouting all 311 calls regarding homeless New Yorkers in need of assistance to 911, but we are also opening up 22 warming buses, 11 H+H warming spaces, [and] 13 DOE warming centers, as you heard from the chancellor.
And we are also critically keeping our on-point overdose prevention centers open overnight through the blizzard. That's both for this evening as well as Monday evening. The reason that I highlight that as being so critical is a number of New Yorkers in the prior storm and in the prolonged arctic spell after that lost their lives due to a preliminary indication of overdose-related [causes]. And so, to have these centers open overnight through extended hours, they would typically have; it's critically important as to getting homeless New Yorkers inside.
Now beyond this, what we are seeing is that our outreach workers are continuing to do incredible work. Just yesterday, they made 86 placements of homeless New Yorkers into safe haven sites and shelters. This will continue to be critically important because what we saw over the previous prolonged cold spell is these workers were able to make 1,400 of those placements.
Now New Yorkers have also played a critical role in assisting with this response, and we are trying to make it as easy as possible for those New Yorkers. And so that's why we're going to be sharing the information as to where the warming centers are as well as what this information is on LinkNYC kiosks across the city.
Question: Out of curiosity, were they going to train stations [or] encampment centers? Like, where were they going to look for vulnerable New Yorkers?
Mayor Mamdani: Outreach workers are going across the five boroughs. They are traversing it 24/7. They are looking both at sites where homeless New Yorkers are known to be [and] just going across our streets, as well as the work that DHS has done to communicate with our partners who are running shelters to be on the lookout outside and in the surrounding area to bring homeless New Yorkers inside.
Question: Question about the travel ban tonight. How will it be enforced, and what are the penalties for people [inaudible]?
Mayor Mamdani: So, the focus here is not on punishment or penalty. The focus, rather, is on compliance. You know, the last time around in 2017, New York City anticipated a blizzard. It did not come to pass. And so, I know for many New Yorkers, sometimes it may seem as if this weather is never actually going to be that bad. However, we only have to look at the year prior to that, in 2016, to see what a blizzard is like.
And I can tell you on Friday, the weather indication said 3 to 4 inches, then 6 to 8 [inches], then 13 to 17 [inches], then 18 to 21 [inches]. Now, 18 to 24 [inches], with certain parts of our city expecting up to 28 inches of snow. If it comes to pass as is predicted, this will put this snowfall into the top 10 snowfall events in the history of New York City. That is what we are looking at.
And so, the reason we have enacted a travel ban is to ensure that we are keeping New Yorkers safe, keeping them warm, and keeping them at home. And we are going to obviously have exemptions for first responders. And New Yorkers can go to 311 [and] they can call to find out the entire list. But if you do not have an emergency to leave your home, the bottom line is to stay home and stay safe.
Question: [Inaudible] Like what are the logistics?
Mayor Mamdani: The focus on this is not going to be on pulling over individual drivers. It's going to be the utilization of all of City government to keep people safe. And so even for our NYPD officers, so much of their work, as we've delineated earlier in this press conference, will be assisting those who are trapped [and] assisting those who are in need. What we are, however, saying to New Yorkers is that this is the travel ban. This is the executive order that we have signed from City government. A violation of this is a Class B [violation].
Question: Going back to what you were just talking about with outreach workers, given the last storm’s death toll, have you noticed that homeless New Yorkers are more receptive to it at this time?
Mayor Mamdani: Well, I can tell you just from yesterday with the 86 placements that we saw in a single day that we are seeing that by providing a wide variety of options to homeless New Yorkers, there is a greater likelihood of success. Because many homeless New Yorkers are wary of engaging with certain kinds of city services, given their experiences in the past. And so that makes it incredibly important that when we reach out to a homeless New Yorker, we don't just tell them that there is a congregate shelter opportunity for them to come inside.
It can also be a single room. It could also perhaps be a hotel room. It could also be a safe haven. It could also be a warming center at a Health + Hospital site. Because I've visited a number of these different sites, and you see homeless New Yorkers respond differently to each of these options.
We need to have all of them so that we can keep people safe. And I will also just say thank you as well to our overdose prevention sites, because they have been critical in ensuring that we are tackling one of the causes of a number of deaths that we saw in the prior storm.
Question: About those outreach workers, is it the same amount as last time? I know, temperature isn't as big of an issue this time. Are there more outreach workers [than] the most recent snow? And also trash removal is a big complaint for New Yorkers. Is there any sort of change with getting trash removed sooner? More trucks? Any other changes since last time? [There were] big complaints also with the snow cleaning and trash removal.
Mayor Mamdani: So typically, when we see a winter storm, the temperatures tend to rise after the fact, which assists with a lot of the melting of ice and snow. What we saw, however, with the prior winter storm was a prolonged arctic spell, the likes of which the city had not seen in a long, long time. And so that actually resulted in the city needing to set up a number of melting sites. We had them in each borough. We actually still have one site still running right now.
However, with this blizzard, while increased amounts of snowfall [are expected], we are anticipating a better weather forecast in the days that follow. We're looking at the potential of 40 degrees on Wednesday or Thursday. Also, being in late February, the effect of the sun is actually far more helpful than it was about a month ago. When it comes to DSNY, in the prior storm, we had about 2,500 DSNY workers working 12-hour shifts. Now we're at about 2,600. That work is going to be supplemented by now more than a thousand emergency snow shovelers, which is more than doubling the prior amount. And there's also been the procurement of additional mechanics that we have been able to bring in to New York City, additional tools and items that can expedite some of the cleaning processes that we have in our city. Finally, we are committed to ensuring that New Yorkers are able to get around their city no matter what their mode of transit is. Whether you're a pedestrian, you're a cyclist, you're a bus rider, you take the train, or you drive a car.
And so, as part of that, we have also expanded our geotagging of a number of sites across the city, including unsheltered bus stops and sidewalks and crosswalks, to ensure that we have a better reading of what the response has been. As you heard from the commissioner, as well as myself, there will be at least one day of delay in trash collection. We are also asking New Yorkers to engage with recycling collection in the manner that they would after specific holidays, holding it for the next week.
And this is just because of the fact that the same incredible men and women at DSNY that are doing the work of snow removal would otherwise be doing the work of garbage collection. And so, we need to make sure that they have enough time to be able to respond to the snow. And then as soon as they can, they will turn to the garbage, and they will also be prioritizing compost, as the commissioner said, on account of the fact that these are the substances that create those kinds of odors.
Question: And do you have the same [number] of outreach workers this time around as the last storm, even if temperature is not as much of an issue? Do you have more outreach workers?
Mayor Mamdani: I will get back to you on the specific number of outreach workers. Thank you.
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