NEW YORK — A massive winter storm pummeled all five boroughs on Saturday, dumping nearly a foot of snow, keeping most New Yorkers at home, complicating travel and lingering throughout the day.
The windy, frigid dump was both an unexpected and, for some, unwelcome surprise.
"It’s pretty big,” said Andrew Chan, 43, who was with his children at Madison Square Park around midday. “This one seems unexpected.” Daughter Kara 7, however, was fine with it, offering a 1-to-10 rating of “100.”
“We had thought the brunt of this would come in the late night hours and have moved on by now, but the storm lingered,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a late morning press conference in Midtown. “We’re still getting the same amount of volume in live time instead of being in clean up mode.”
The heavy snowfall, buffeted by 50 miles per hour winds, should end in the city by midafternoon, the governor said. There was already more than 4 inches on the ground with another 4-7 inches expected before the storm ends.
Long Island residents got hit a lot harder. Storm conditions in Nassau and Suffolk counties were expected to continue through early Saturday evening. Snowfall figures by midday were between 7-11 inches with another 12 inches expected.
“We have to hold on and wait a little longer,” she said, calling the named winter storm Kenan a “classic Nor'easter.”
“This is a very serious storm. It could be life threatening,” she said. “But we’ve prepared for this.”
The cleanup was underway in force with more than 1,800 plows clearing the roads throughout the state, Hochul said.
About 450 homes throughout the city lost power during the storm.
A deep freeze was expected top follow the storm into the city, and continue until at least Tuesday, complicating the cleanup, Hochul said.
“Things are looking very good,” she declared.
Pizza delivery worker Miguel Meija, 26, dutifully schlepped pies past the Empire State Building, with drivers locking up their brakes as he crossed 34th street.
“This storm is normal. Every year it’s like this,” he said, adding glumly, tips were only slightly better than normal.
Mayor Eric Adams, meanwhile, encouraged city residents to remain indoors, tweeting an update from the Bronx on Saturday morning.
“I’m up in the Bronx on Tiffany St. The roads are slippery out here today,” said Adams, wearing a blue coat, the collar turned up and a red and green scarf as cars rolled through the snow and the slush behind him. “It is best to be off the roads and let DSNY clean the streets.”
“Be careful, bundle up. It’s a good day to stay home if you don’t have to go out,” he advised.
In an interview on 1010 Wins, Adams said the city was handling the storm “very well.”
“I am just so impressed on how this city is,” he remarked. “It is just a well oiled machine with city employees. They know what to do know and they know the plays we must call. Through our combined efforts we are going to ride this storm as smoothly as possible.”
As the storm blows through the city, first responders were ordered to move any unsheltered people they find out on the street into hospitals and homeless shelters, Adams said, underlining the need for people to remain at home if possible.
“If you’re stuck on the road, you are preventing our emergency vehicles and trucks do do what we have to do — to get the roads clear so we can respond to emergencies,” he said.
Adams praised the response from city workers out in the cold and snow.
“This is a complicated city but we have the tools and we have the personnel and man power that they’re professionals and my goal is to just give support to those men and women on the front line that want to make sure tax payers are getting their money’s worth to get things done in the right way,” he said.
“We are going to get through this, every storm we’re going to get through it just as COVID is a storm we’re going to get through,” he said.
Adams also joked that he intends to put a list together on the city’s website of great places to go sledding.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm watch for much of the tri-state area starting Friday evening and lasting through Saturday night.
Meteorologists predicted southern and central Queens and Long Island would bear the brunt of the storm.
The storm has shut down city ferry service and led to the cancellation of 76% flights at JFK Airport, while all departures from Newark Liberty International Airport were canceled Saturday morning. Flights both in and out of LaGuardia Airport also were stymied Saturday morning. MTA CEO Janno Lieber said bus and train lines in the city were nearly fully operational.
“Almost every station is (open),” he said during Hochul’s press conference. “We suspended temporarily the last stretch to the Rockaways, but otherwise the system is in full gear.”
The Long Island railroad and several MetroNorth lines were suspended during the storm, but were expected to reopen once the storm moves away and the shovels come out.
Hochul, who fondly remembered shoveling her neighbor’s homes as a child after big storms, plans to give Adams some tips on shoveling when she gets the chance — because he’s going to need it.
“You don’t shovel with your hands. You shovel with your knees,” she advised.
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(The New York Daily News' Jessica Schladebeck contributed to this story.)
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