The first snowfall of the season created a wintery nightmare for New Yorkers trying to navigate the evening commute on Thursday night.
A combination of heavy snow and wind gusts in excess of 40 miles an hour made for treacherous road conditions resulting in near gridlock on the Major Deegan Express in the Bronx as well as the upper level of the George Washington Bridge.
Drivers abandoned their vehicles, mass transit was overwhlemed, some students were stranded on buses or forced to spend the night at school, and downed trees on power lines, train tracks, and roadway made travel nearly insurmountable.
On Friday, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city was caught off-guard by the storm’s intensity following initial reports of little to no snow. According to the Weather Service, more than 6 inches of snow was officially recorded at Central Park – the biggest one-day November snowfall in more than 135 years.
With no chains on their tires, MTA buses stalled on roadways, serving only to compound the gridlock. As for the Port Authrity bus terminal, authorties were forced to close two levels due to dangerous lovels of overcrowding as thousands of commuters scrambled to find an alternative way home.
“We’re going to do a full review,” said de Blasio in an interview on NY1. “I’m not happy with the end result. It’s unacceptable.”
The perfect storm
According to de Blasio, the city was caught in a series of unfortunate circumstances including a bad forecast and a “chain reaction” stemming from the George Washington Bridge’s closure.
“We got just every form of bad luck we could have gotten yesterday,” de Blasio said.
Port Authority offered free train rides into New Jersey for the rest of the night to try and make up for the delays. New Jersey State Police said it responded to 555 auto crashes and more than 1,000 calls for motorist assistance in less than 24 hours.
“Now the plows were out, they had their salt, that wasn’t the problem here. We had a bit, if you’ll forgive the phrase, of a perfect storm,” de Blasio said.
