With snow accumulations of up to 10 inches forecast, Mayor Bloomberg has declared a weather emergency.
City officials said today that any car found blocking roadways or impeding the ability to plow streets may be towed at the owner’s expense.
Alternate-side parking is suspended until further notice.
“Hopefully, no one will die because of this storm,” Bloomberg told reporters during a news conference.
The National Weatther Service said a winter weather warning was in effect from 10 a.m. Wednesday to 6 a.m. Thursday. It covers the city, Rockland and Westchester counties, Long Island and portions of northeast New Jersey.
The weather service says a snow and sleet mix is expected in the afternoon and the early evening, with the heaviest snowfall likely occurring overnight. A light snow began falling in the city around 8 a.m.
“In response we have issued a weather emergency declaration. This means we have suspended all city rules that would require a driver to move a car for any reasons,” said Bloomberg.
The wide-ranging storm brought a mix of rain and snow to areas from Tennessee into New England.
The snow was expected to get heavier by afternoon and could complicate the evening rush hour, particularly in New England.
Many parts of the East have gotten more snow about a month into winter than they usually get all season. Hartford, which could get as much as a foot more from the latest storm, has already gotten 55 inches, compared with a 46-inch winter average. New York has gotten more than 36 inches of snow and Boston has had 50.
Schools closed or delayed starts around the region, including in parts of Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., and New Jersey.
New Jersey and the Philadelphia area could get 4 to 8 inches, and high winds are expected before the storm moves out early Thursday.
The stormy weather was causing some airport delays and cancellations Wednesday morning. In Philadelphia, about 40 departing flights were canceled and some arriving flights are being delayed, some for up to nearly three hours. The FAA said the weather was causing some five-hour arrival delays at New York La Guardia and Newark Liberty airports.
The National Weather Service said significant snowfall was forecast for the New York metropolitan area. Accumulations of up to 10 inches were forecast for the city, Rockland and Westchester counties and Long Island.
Snow began falling heavily on Long Island in the middle of the morning rush hour. Local streets quickly became snow covered, although the major roadways remained passable.
“The roads are really, really bad,” said Ed Deutsch, a school bus driver from Islip Terrace. He said a trip that ordinarily takes him 35 minutes took over an hour.
“I’d rather have 4 feet of snow than this coating that’s on the roads right now. It’s very slippery.”
Motorists in New Jersey also faced slick conditions as light snow fell over most of the state. Heavy snow was expected over most of the state Wednesday night.
In Philadelphia, the intensity of the storm caught some by surprise.
In downtown, Andre Floyd, a carpenter for more than a decade with the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation, arrived to work at his usual time, 7 a.m., but already felt behind on his duties of clearing snow along the waterfront. When snow is expected, he said, his crew comes in at 6 to clear it.
“We got surprised,” he said. “It was supposed to rain this morning.”
But he’s not complaining.
“It’s a blessing, I got a job. I could be looking at this weather and thinking ‘I don’t want to go to work,’ but I look at it like it’s a job, I have a job.”
Meteorologists say the storm could leave some significant snow in Maryland and the District of Columbia after several close calls. On Washington streets, conditions were mostly slushy or wet. But forecasts for later in day range from 1 to 10 inches of snow.
The storm will likely bring heavy snow to much of southern New England late Wednesday and early Thursday morning.
With AP