New Yorkers will get no respite from yesterday’s snow storm with two more expected to blow into the city before the week’s end.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm watch through tomorrow. There is also a storm forecast for the weekend, with a 50% chance of snow expected for Sunday.
Mayor Bill de Blasio Monday announced the deployment of 450 salt spreaders, 1,500 plows and 175,000 tons of rock salt to combat the slushy conditions throughout the week.
He said city agencies reviewed their response to the last storm in late January and found it “left something to be desired.”
“Look, every new administration has an opportunity to put a fresh set of eyes on the situation,” de Blasio said at a news conference. “And we felt that there were some things that could be better coordinated. We felt there were some decisions that needed to be made more aggressively and early.”
As a result, the city implemented initial operational changes, one of which was to cancel recycling and trash collection so the sanitation department can focus on snow removal, de Blasio said.
Other changes include better coordination among government agencies, the pre-positioning of salt spreaders and tow vehicles and equipping all articulated buses with tire chains during rush hour, the mayor said.
He urged New Yorkers to use public transportation and encouraged the use of Plow NYC, a real-time map that tracks snow removal on the city’s 6,300 miles of streets. The PlowNYC website is online at maps.nyc.gov/snow.
