Blizzard Overblown

Blizzard Overblown

‘Historic’ Screwup Shuts City Down

#Blizzard #Cuomo #MayordeBlasio

Photo by David Greene

By Dan Gesslein

BRONX, NEW YORK, JANUARY 27- You call that a Blizzard? Bronxites awoke to find the Storm of the Century was anything but as the city received half to three times less snow than was forecast.

Yesterday Mayor Bill deBlasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo urged residents to stay in their homes because of the massive historical snowfall heading for New York City. Planes were grounded. The subways were shut down and the highways and roads were banned of all traffic except for emergency vehicles. Drivers breaking the ban were threatened with tickets costing up to $300.

The true effect on local restaurants is unknown since the mayor grounded takeout deliveries. The ban on non-

(Fear the snow. Gov. Cuomo told residents to stay home because of the "historic" blizzard)

emergency vehicles was extended to bicycles and scooters leaving restaurants to only deliver takeout by foot.

Instead of the big dig, Bronxites woke up to a mere 

sprinkling of the most 12 inches of snow not the 24 to 36 inches that were forecast. Many residents breathed a sigh of relief and were happy that the cleanup would go quickly.

There were no major outages reported throughout the borough by Con Edison.

(Road conditions the day BEFORE the blizzard were far worse than the blizzard itself. -Photo by Dan Gesslein)

“As of 11:30 am Tuesday I am getting reports that asphalt can be seen on main thoroughfares and that the Sanitation Dept. is well on its way to addressing side streets,” said Councilman James Vacca. "The fact that this storm was not as bad as anticipated will certainly mean a quicker snow cleanup on the week ahead."

Travel was worse the day before the storm with limited plowing and salting on the Hutch and I-95 which snarled the rush hour traffic home. Those who raced back from work to get home before the supposed massive storm were instead forced to brave snow and ice covered roads of the traffic snarled I-95 and Hutchinson River Parkway. Riders jammed subways before being stuck in the city.

As for the hysteria caused by the build up to the snowstorm, the reaction among officials was simply “My Bad.” The massive press conferences at a sanitation garage declaring the state of emergency by deBlasio was replaced with a simple one sentence statement issued this morning by the mayor’s stating that the roads were reopened. 

Who is to blame for shutting down the city? Well one weather forecaster took to Twitter to voice his mistake.

“My deepest apologies to many key decision makers and so many members of the general public,” tweeted National Weather Service meteorologist Gary Szatkowski. “This is a big forecast miss.”

Many took the screw up in stride but were not sure how this could be such a miss.

“They do realize that we get snow storms in January right?” asked one frustrated commuter. “This is the Bronx. A few flakes is not the end of the world.”

"I do not criticize forecasters," Gov. Cuomo said at a news conference after the storm. The governor said he would rather be "safe than sorry."