Super Snow Day Hits New York City, Region

NOAA tweeted this view from space of the massive superstorm covering most of the East Coast late Thursday, and the early morning hours of Friday brought New York City an epic snow day:

A menacing storm that had charted a relentless course across the Midwest — leaving behind more than a foot of snow in some places, along with fender-benders on slippery roads and flight delays at airports — churned into the New York region on Thursday evening, ready to deliver an overnight barrage of heavy snow and high winds.

The storm, a huge whitish smudge on meteorologists’ radar screens that stretched more than 700 miles from Indiana to Long Island, promised to be the first test of New York City’s new mayor, Bill de Blasio. In his last job, as the city’s public advocate, Mr. de Blasio was critical of the response under his predecessor, Michael R. Bloomberg, when plows were slow to reach some neighborhoods, particularly in the boroughs outside Manhattan, after a storm in late 2010.

Nearly a foot of snow hit the greater New York City area, and the results were predictable:

The first snowstorm of 2014 canceled hundreds of flights, caused a state of emergency and shut down the Long Island Expressway — before the first inch even fell.

And after the much-hyped storm dropped more than 5 inches of snow in the metro area by Friday morning,Chancellor Carmen Fariña has announced all city schools were closed. Student after-school and PSAL games were also canceled. Senior centers were also closed.

But even before the wicked winter weather arrived, Gov. Cuomo imposed a state of emergency throughout the Empire State and ordered closures of the Thruway, Interstate 84 and the Long Island Expressway.

The flurries blew throughout Brooklyn and Queens, slowing traffic to a crawl in the thick powder that hardened into ice as the morning progressed.

Wind gusts kicked up snow as a black sedan labored through a snow bank on Kingston Ave. on Empire Blvd. in Crown Heights.

Police cruisers, plows, and ambulances meandered along East New York Ave in Brownsville, scanning for disabled vehicles.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.