Mayor Mamdani said Thursday the city is bracing for potentially massive winter storm, doing everything it can to prepare for bitter cold and as much as a foot of snow forecast to hit New York starting Saturday evening.
Around 2,000 sanitation workers will work 12 hour shifts to salt, brine and remove snow starting Saturday morning, Mamdani said. As snowfall is projected to thicken later in the day, 700 salt spreaders will hit the streets to cover “every single part of our city” several times over, Mamdani said.
“As we speak, our sanitation fleet is being transformed into a snow clearing fleet,” the mayor said. “DSNY is very good at what they do, and they are very well practiced at this work.”
Meteorologists predicted Thursday there’s a 90% of at least six inches of snow in the area beginning Sunday and continuing through early Monday, with the potential for as much as a foot. The snowfall will hit the five boroughs as well as Long Island, New Jersey, the Hudson Valley and Connecticut.
It could be the most snow since February 2021 when nearly 17 inches fell in Central Park over two days.
The storm could serve as one of the first major tests of Mamdani’s mayoralty and his crisis management abilities.
Ex-Mayor Adams faced flack in 2022 when he jetted off to the U.S. Virgin Islands without telling New Yorkers during a December storm, and former Mayor Bloomberg left for Bermuda right before a Christmas weekend blizzard hit the city in 2010. The blizzard of 1969 famously proved a nearly devastating political blow to an prepared Mayor John Lindsay.
“It is only right that New Yorkers judge their leaders by their ability to deliver for them in the most day-to-day aspects of their life,” Mamdani said Thursday. “… We take this seriously, because it has serious consequences for New Yorkers’ lives.”
Temperatures will drop into the teens on Saturday and remain below freezing through at least next Wednesday, forecasters projected.
The city will be under a code blue, with outreach teams taking to the streets to help homeless or otherwise vulnerable New Yorkers stay warm.
The mayor said the city will a decision on whether schools will be open in person or not on Monday.
“This forecast is quickly changing, and the city will continue to provide updates as the situation evolves,” he said.
Asked during a Wednesday appearance on PIX11 if he will “bring snow days back” ahead of Sunday’s storm, NYC Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels said that if school buildings do have to close due to the storm, the city would use virtual learning.
“It’s early,” Samuels said. “Let’s see where we go.”
With Cayla Bamberger
