Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Holds Press Conference to Update New Yorkers on Winter Weather Conditions

February 1, 2015

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Okay. Good afternoon, everyone. I’m joined by Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia, First Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Transportation Laurie Ardito, our OEM commissioner, Joe Esposito, our schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña, Chief of Department, NYPD, Jimmy O’Neill, our fire commissioner, Dan Nigro, and of course, our first deputy mayor, Tony Shorris.

Everyone knows that we are once again facing tough winter weather. We want to get all New Yorkers updated and prepared. We will be under a winter storm watch starting at 7 pm this evening. So, just around the time the Superbowl is starting, we will be under a winter storm watch. That will go on until 6 pm tomorrow, Monday – so, almost 24 hours under the storm watch. We’re expecting snow, sleet, and freezing rain.

Now, we have the latest forecast from the National Weather Service from a couple hours ago, but I will say at the outset, we all know that weather forecasting is imperfect. We’re not going to have a full and complete update until the very early morning hours. So this situation could change a lot between now and when we wake up tomorrow morning – it could change for the better, it could change for the worse. We have to be ready for any eventuality.

But the latest that we’ve gotten from the weather service, and trying to adjust a little bit for some of what we’ve seen lately where the numbers come in a little higher than expected – we’re hearing, most likely, a range of two to five inches of snow. It would not be surprising if that turned into four to seven inches based on what we’re seeing so far. But again, a lot can change between now and the early morning hours.

From what we know now – if it is most likely in the two to five range, possibly the four to seven range – that’s the kind of snowstorm we can accommodate fairly well. The biggest threat in this case would be ice. We would expect a lot of icing on our roads and sidewalks – up to a quarter inch of ice in some places – and a lot of that would happen in the early morning hours. So, we want people to be very, very cautious tomorrow as you’re getting around, looking out for the potential danger of ice. There will be wind gusts of up to 35 miles an hour. So, it’s not particularly extreme, but it will be a noticeable amount of wind.

Now, the snow, again – the winter storm watch – begins at 7 pm tonight. We think you probably won’t see actual snow accumulating much at all before the end of the Superbowl – so, 9 o’clock, 10 o’clock in the evening. But for anyone leaving Superbowl parties, you’re going to have to be ready to be careful at that point. You could have some beginning of accumulation of snow. You could have slippery driving conditions. I want to urge people to think ahead, have a designated driver. Obviously don’t drink and drive under any circumstance, but particularly not on a night where it could be snowy and icy. So, we want people to be very, very careful after the Superbowl tonight.

Again, the real snow will happen in earnest overnight, and particularly the early, early hours of the morning – you know, talking about 3 o’clock, 4 o’clock am is when we think it’ll hit stronger, based on the information we have now. The snow will continue into the morning rush hour. At some point in the morning, we expect it to convert to freezing rain, and then regular rain. So we’re going to see a progression here as things warm up going through the morning.

At the end of the storm, we expect to be hit by very cold temperatures. So, right now the projection is for – with wind chill – temperatures of ten below to 20 below on Monday evening. Tomorrow night – Monday night – ten below to 20 below – again, very dangerous conditions Monday night in New York City in terms of just exposure. We want people to really keep their time outside limited tomorrow night. Don’t go outside if you don’t need to. If you know of anyone who may be vulnerable, it’s very important to help them out or to call it in, because those will be extremely cold temperatures.

As you know, we are prepared for snowstorms. We have a huge task ahead in this next 24 hours, covering our 6,000 miles of roadways. I never tire of reminding you, that’s like going from here to Los Angeles and back – but that’s what sanitation and DOT deal with every single day – and they are more than up to the task. So, I want to thank everyone at DOT, everyone at OEM, a particular thank you to the men and women of the sanitation department who are already in action getting ready for this – they’ve been, at sanitation, continuing those 12-hour shifts, still coming off the last storm, now getting ready for the new one.

Here’s what we have in action preparing for this storm: 2,400 sanitation workers per shift; 500 salt spreaders ready; 1,600 snowplows; FDNY will also be adding personnel – an additional 25 ambulances and 10 support units to handle any emergencies – and we have the ability to add personnel as the weather report clarifies. So, they’re – put initial extra personnel in place – we may add to that depending on what we see with the next report, which will come in starting after 1 am this morning – this coming morning, I should say.

We know that our workforce has seen it all – and they can handle even the toughest situations – and we know they are doing everything to get us ready for the tough weather ahead. What we have to do as New Yorkers is do the right thing, do the smart thing, and prepare. So, even tonight after the Superbowl, driving could start to be a little slower – take some precautions, take your time. Tomorrow morning, expect your commute to take more time – drive slower, be careful. If you don’t need to be out on the roads tomorrow morning, don’t go out on the roads. If you don’t need to walk around, don’t walk around. Just exercise some caution, because, again, we think the worst of this will be over by late morning tomorrow. Again, if you have to get around and you have the option of mass transit, mass transit is by far the best option in this situation.

We’re going to ask people to avoid city parks when we get this snow going in earnest overnight – so, going into the morning hours. We’d like people to stay out of city parks tomorrow morning because we’re worried, again, about accumulation on the trees and any danger of falling limbs. We’ll have more to say – we’ll obviously have updates throughout the day tomorrow – but we want to start with the assumption that city parks are not a great place to be in the morning.

As I always emphasize, if anyone is having a problem with heat and hot water, we particularly like to make sure those issues are addressed when there’s bad weather. Call 3-1-1 if you’re having a problem with heat or hot water so we can act on it right away. Always do something basic, but very important – check on your neighbors. Particularly check on your neighbors who are seniors, who happen to be disabled – or if you know they have particular medical needs, it’s a great time to check in on them this afternoon, see if they have everything they need – check in on them again tomorrow – it helps a lot.

In terms of other announcements, we’re announcing that alternate side parking is cancelled tomorrow – alternate side cancelled tomorrow, garbage and recycling pick-ups cancelled tomorrow. We’ll have an update obviously tomorrow on whether we will continue that into Tuesday, but we know for sure no alternate side tomorrow.

As for school, at this moment, we expect school to be open. This will be – a final decision will be a game-time decision as we get the National Weather Service report in the early morning hours tonight – but based on what we know now, we expect school to be open. Parents should check first thing in the morning to confirm that, but plan on school being open. Again, if people need information – 3-1-1. If they see an emergency, if they see a life-threatening situation – 9-1-1.

Quickly in Spanish before I brought – bring up a few of my colleagues –

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish]

With that, I’d like to bring up our sanitation commissioner. She has gone through her first big storm with flying colors, as she will the next one – Commissioner Kathryn Garcia.

Commissioner Kathryn Garcia, Department of Sanitation: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. As the mayor said, we do have 2,400 employees on each of our shifts. They have been on 12-hour shifts for over a week now – they will continue to be as we attack this storm as we have attacked the other storms.

We have been pre-positioning our equipment this afternoon, and we’ve been doing a lot of planning in the last 18 hours, getting plowed and chained and ready to go. This will be a difficult storm in terms of the fact that the timing has been a little bit unknown and there will be ice accumulation, so I do ask folks, if they are driving, to make sure that they are taking it slow.

Thank you.

Mayor: Thank you very much. DOT’s been doing a great job trying to fill potholes at every opportunity to make this work go better – and great coordination with sanitation. I’d like to welcome our DOT first deputy commissioner, Laurie Ardito.

First Deputy Commissioner Laurie Ardito, Department of Transportation: Thank you, mayor, and good afternoon. And as the mayor said, we are hard at work and we’re ready for the storm. We’re going to have over 600 personnel over the next two days to address the storm, assisting sanitation. We also have our bridge unit that takes care of the four East River bridges. We will be, this evening, pre-treating them – both the walkway and the roadway. But as everyone has mentioned, you know, it is going to be icy out there first thing in the morning – and just – we just need to be – be careful while we’re driving and walking.

We also want to make sure that everyone knows that the Staten Island Ferry will be on a normal schedule. And obviously, based on the storm, if anything changes, we will send out notifications, but we want everybody to give themselves enough time in the morning.

Thank you.

Mayor: Thank you very much. Finally, our OEM commissioner has been doing a great job getting all the agencies to work in coordination – obviously also with our state and federal partners. Our OEM commissioner, Joe Esposito –

Commissioner Joseph Esposito, Office of Emergency Management: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We’ve been in constant contact with National Weather Service. We’ll continue to do that right through the whole storm. We’ll see if the conditions do change. Numerous calls and meetings with our agency partners, making sure that the plans are coordinated and put into place. Our command center – our emergency operations center – will be open as of 9 o’clock tonight.  Again, we have representatives from other agencies there with us, and they’ll stay open and in touch with each other until the storm has passed. Our tow truck task force will be activated sometime around 9 o’clock tonight, maybe a little later, depending on the latest indication by the National Weather Service. A hazardous travel advisory has been issued. We’re sending out messaging through social media, through private sector – everyone – about current conditions and what to do and what not to do. And also, the homebound – we’ve ensured that extra meals have been delivered – they’ll have meals for tomorrow.

Thank you.

Mayor: Thank you very much, Joe. And Joe, how many tow trucks do you have available to you, roughly?

Commissioner Esposito: Over a hundred.

Mayor: Over a hundred – good. So, we have tow trucks ready in case anything bogs down. With that, we welcome your questions on this topic. Yes –

Question: Mayor, just really quickly – you mentioned that you want people to limit their exposure tomorrow. But what’s the rationale for keeping the schools open? Maybe Chancellor Fariña can –

Mayor: I’ll start and the chancellor can certainly join in – because I think there’s a clear point here. Our job is, of course, to keep things moving in New York City and make sure people can go about their lives, but that also means be careful, be smart about it. If we ever have a situation where we don’t think school can be put together properly, we, of course, will call it off – that’s what we did last week. But in this case, based on the numbers we have – which could be in the, you know, low single digits, in terms of the number of inches of snow – it does not make sense to call off school in that situation. It does make sense to tell people, be careful getting around. If you don’t have to, you know, walk outside, don’t walk outside. If you can use mass transit, use mass transit. It’s about taking smart precautions. But we think, based on what we know at this moment, you know, things could go pretty well tomorrow. We feel good about the ability to have a pretty normal day in New York City. We won’t know for sure what the National Weather Service thinks until after their 1 am forecast to us. Then we have to make some additional decisions, potentially. And at that point, we may have more information. We also know – as we discovered last week, snow and weather in general, is unpredictable. Sometimes you get a lot more than you expect, sometimes you get a lot less than you expect. So we’re making our decisions with the current National Weather Service forecast – adding a few inches in for safety’s sake. We still think that we can have a good, safe school day and a pretty normal day, all things considered in New York City. Chancellor, you want to add?

Question: And if you can answer in Spanish, that would be great.

Mayor: Sure.

Chancellor Carmen Fariña, Department of Education: I think the major thing, particularly for parents, is to make sure your kids are dressed appropriately – layer them – and I think also leaving a little extra time to get to school, whether you’re the professional in the building or the parent with children.

[Chancellor Fariña speaks in Spanish]

Question: Mr. Mayor, a week ago, you held a similar press conference for the storm that didn’t materialize. My question is not, in any way, meant as a criticism, but do you feel at all, maybe a little sheepish or embarrassed coming out a week later and doing the same thing?

Mayor: Nope. I make decisions for a living. We – that’s what the people sent me here to do. We take the information we have, we make the best decision we can with it. I will always err on the side of safety. And in this case, again, tomorrow, at this moment, thank God, looks like something we can manage well. The forecast we had in the hours leading up to the last storm were so consistent and so overwhelming in terms of the magnitude being suggested that it was obviously the right thing to do to take extra precautions. But no – it’s the same criteria, the same approach each time. What we all talk about is the unknown, because even the best forecasting can only get you so close to the truth. So how do you add to the forecast some extra assumptions to be careful? How do you make decisions if you get the information late? That 1 o’clock National Weather Service forecast takes some time for them to then give us the information and the details from – different agencies have to weight in. That means we don’t get to make a decision until 3 am, 4 am, practically speaking, if something has to be handled differently. That’s why I’m emphasizing to parents – check first thing in the morning. Right now, again, the expectation is school will happen, but it’s important to check first thing in the morning.

Question: This is a question for Commissioner Nigro – do you have any updates on the causes of the Williamsburg fires last night?

Mayor: Well, why don't we do this topic first, and then we'll do that after, or you can do it separately with him. Go ahead – 

Question: Mayor, have you been in touch with the governor and his staff today, and if so, was that smoother than with the last storm?

Mayor: In general, it was smooth during the last storm – and it has been in all of these situations. That's why I don't want people to take a whole fact pattern and misrepresent it. We talk – generally on the staff level – state and city – all the time, about a whole host of things. Coordination is very good. OEM's coordination with the state and the MTA is very good. Once in a while, there will either be a miscommunication or a difference of opinion, but the vast majority of times, there's lots of communication, and lots of agreements. So, yes, that has been continuing in preparation for this storm.

Question: Mr. Mayor, just to follow up on that – have you ever spoken to the governor about what happened with the subway, and perhaps you not being consulted in reasonable time for it – at least having your input?

Mayor: We've made the point clearly to the state that we think we can do a little bit better next time – and we think we have to learn from this situation what different options we may have in that kind of situation. I think it's been a productive conservation. 

Question: So, alternate side is suspended tomorrow. Any plans on adjusting the other street rules?

Mayor: Like, for example?

Question: For example, you're not supposed to park between 8 am and 8 pm, some people find confusion whether they can park in those spots or not.

Mayor: All right, let's bring DOT up to clarify. We want to get rid of that confusion.

First Deputy Commissioner Ardito: I think maybe – you may be referring to the regulation that's in and around parking meters prior to the parking meter going into effect. So, parking meters are in effect, so that regulation is in effect prior to the parking meters. So the only – the only thing that is cancelled is alternate side of the street parking rules.

Mayor: Okay. Anyone who hasn't gone yet? [inaudible]

Question: Mr. Mayor, given that much of the storm is going to be happening at night, do you feel that the clock is working in the city's favor this time?

Mayor: No. I would rather that we had a clearer picture, by definition. We obviously understand that a lot of information is going to break late here, but we're ready for that. In other words, once we've been alerted to the fact that the snow will happen, you know, right at the time when folks are getting ready to get going with their day – we're going to do our best with every piece of information we have to make the right adjustments in light of that. I think we all prefer snow to get done, you know, sort of late evening, you know, early, early morning hours, so we have a lot of open field for sanitation to get out there. By the way, look at what sanitation did with this last storm – extraordinary job of clearing the way – so that when we lifted the travel ban, things were actually quite smooth in most parts of the city. This situation – the snow's going to be hitting later than we would ideally like based on what we know now. But at 1 am, we may find a very different reality – and that's part of what we have to grapple with.

Phil Walzak: One or two more, guys.

Question: Yes – Mr. Mayor, what is the latest communication you’ve had with the subway –MTA – about service tomorrow morning?

Mayor: At this moment, we think MTA will be fully operational. 

Question: Mr. Mayor, this is a – admittedly, a tricky forecast, sort of by any standards, and at the moment, as far as I know, it's supposed to snow for [inaudible] and then ice at like the moment the school buses go on the roads. I guess I'm curious – what's the latest [inaudible] and you know, I know you don't get into what-ifs, but what happens if you decide not to close schools, and then, as predicted right now, it becomes a nightmare?

Mayor: Well, I don't think any scenario, thank God, is a nightmare. I think what we were getting forecasted a week ago was a real nightmare. This is traditionally within the manageable level of snow. I think part of why we are having this press conference is to help people know what's coming. My experience as a driver and as a pedestrian is, if you know to take precautions, you act differently. So, we're telling all our fellow New Yorkers, take precautions. If you have – if you don't have to drive, don't drive in the morning. If you can take mass transit, that's better. If you have to drive, drive slow, leave extra time. If you're getting your kids to school, leave extra time. If you have to go out on the sidewalks, be very cautious about ice. But we have a chance, based on what we find out in the early morning hours, to make a decision up until about 4 am, that if we had to get something out new to the world, we could get out by say, 5 am – that is enough time for most people to make changes if they have to, or if anything happens with school. Again, we don't predict that based on what we know now. Based on what we know now, school will open, MTA will be running pretty smoothly. You will experience delays – people should give themselves extra time, and should act carefully – and then by the time we get to the end of the morning, things should be clearing up. 

Last call, going once, going twice – thank you, everyone. 

Question: Can we just ask Commissioner Nigro about the fire?

Mayor: [inaudible]

Question: Yeah, sure. I was just asking if you had any updates about the causes of the two fires last night [inaudible]?

Commissioner Daniel Nigro, FDNY: No, it's really way too early for that, because we can't get into the building. The only thing we've been able to do is talk to three employees who were there overnight. So, it'll be a while before we have any idea what started that fire.

Question: Is it still smoldering?

Commissioner Nigro: It is still doing a little more than smoldering – it'll be smoldering probably all week, and off and on we get pockets of fire. But we have the building surrounded, and we'll maintain a presence there as long as we need to.

Question: [inaudible] inspections [inaudible] you've got a warehouse piled floor to ceiling with paper. Is it up to code? Is there – were there inspections at this facility, as far as you know?

Commissioner Nigro: It's inspected regularly – and we won't know really what started it. It's a building full of fuel – a building full of paper – and once it got started, it was difficult to extinguish, especially under the extraordinarily rough conditions for the firefighters with the extreme cold and strong winds.