• The Mayor said that this is a dangerous storm. The City is still facing blizzard-like conditions with gusting winds to 40 miles per hour and visibility of less than a quarter of a mile.
• The City will shortly have up to a foot of snow. It is expected that the snow will lighten this afternoon and end by tonight, but the weather is difficult to predict.
• The Department of Sanitation is focusing on the main streets, and then they’ll plow the secondary and tertiary streets, so that all the streets throughout the five boroughs are cleared. The highest priority is to get those main roads open, so that emergency services personnel can do their jobs as needed. The goal is to do everything possible to have as close to a normal rush hour on Monday.
• There are 350 salt spreaders – with plows attached – out working since Saturday evening when snow began to fall.
• There are 2,200 Department of Sanitation snowplows out.
• Temporary laborers are being brought in this morning to help with the shoveling of step streets, bus stops, crosswalks, etc. These workers were pre-registered and are being paid $10 an hour – we gave them a dollar an hour raise this year. To learn more, please visit DSNY.
• Sanitation workers are on 12-hour split shifts around the clock, assigned to snow fighting coverage until further notice.
• All vacations and days off were cancelled starting Saturday at 7:00 AM and that continues until the job of snow removal is completed.
• There are also 76 DOT highway plows out in all five boroughs. They have been helping with the clean-up operation since 7 PM Saturday.
• The Fire Department has added a fifth man to all engines.
• Police Department personnel are out in four-wheel-drive vehicles to help stranded motorists and all New Yorkers.
• Homeowners and businesses must remove snow and ice from sidewalks four hours after the storm ends.
• When clearing snow, make sure fire hydrants are accessible. Please be mindful never to shovel snow back into a plowed street. This can be hazardous to our emergency personnel when they need to pass through and respond to a crisis.
• Remember to check in on your neighbors – especially if they are elderly or in poor health. It’s always nice to do something for others, so this would be a good time to offer to shovel your elderly or disabled neighbor’s sidewalks.
• This is a holiday weekend. There will be no garbage and recycling collections on Monday because of the Lincoln's Day holiday.
• Also, alternate side parking has been suspended on Monday because of the holiday.
• The Sanitation Department’s Snow Battalion has been activated and will continue to stay on the job with 25 front-end loaders, 30 dump trucks, and 20 snow melters across the City.
• When you go to work tomorrow morning, mass transit is the way to go. It’s safe, quick, and inexpensive – there’s no other system like it in the world. Even with the snow still falling, mass transit – both buses and rail – are on or close to schedule. There’s no reason not to take it tomorrow.
• Don’t move your cars if you don’t have to – not just because of traffic, but because so many street parking spaces across the City are going to be compromised by the snow.
• If you want to go out and enjoy the snow, please use common sense and have a little bit of patience. Dress warmly, wear hats, gloves, and boots.
• Make sure your children are dressed warmly and when they get wet, the way all kids do playing in the snow, get them indoors to dry out, and put on some dry clothes.
• And most importantly, City streets are NOT for playing in after a snowstorm like this one, so please make sure not to let your children, or any child for that matter, play in them. Tragically one little girl lost her life a year ago when a sanitation vehicle did not see her playing in the street.
• The Parks Department will be having their traditional “First Day of Snow” festivities in City Parks this afternoon. Parks & Recreation will provide sleds, holiday music, and hot chocolate at selected locations across the City starting at 2:00 PM. Urban Park Rangers will lead nature walks and teach revelers how to find animal prints in the snow. That’s another reason to go play in the parks and not the streets. For more information.
• Of course, even in the parks you have to excise some caution: there are fenced off areas and iced-over ponds that you want to avoid.

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