State of emergency in New York due to snowstorm, schools switch to totally remote education

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) – The Mayor of Blasio of New York has declared a state of emergency, including the restriction of all non-essential travel, starting at 6 am on Monday.

The following categories are exempt from these restrictions:
Public transport workers
First responders
Health workers and homecare
Cops
Peace officers
Any other workers involved in vital city services
Delivery of food, medical supplies or fuel
Media
Hotel workers
Shelters for homeless and community workers
Utility workers performing emergency repairs
People employed by pharmacies, supermarkets (including all food and beverage stores), convenience stores, bodegas, gas stations, laundries, hotels, restaurants / bars and hardware stores
Individuals seeking medical treatment or medical supplies
Rental vehicles used to transport persons employed to perform any of these services to and from their workplaces

The mayor has warned New Yorkers to avoid travel as the storm intensifies.

715 salt spreaders and 2,000 plows are ready to clear the roads with another 120 plows to join the fleet of other agencies in the city.

As of Saturday, more than 500 miles of highways have been salted and pre-treated by the city’s sanitation.

All students in New York will move to remote education on Monday because of the winter storm. As for Tuesday, de Blasio says that no decision has been made yet.

Food distribution will be canceled at schools, as will the Learning Bridges daycare program for Monday.

All Catholic elementary schools in the Archdiocese of New York will be closed on Monday, February 1, due to the great snowstorm. Monday will be a “traditional snow day” without remote instruction. All Catholic schools have snow days built into their calendars with contingencies to make up for instruction time.

Archdiocese High Schools operate independently, so high school families need to follow their schools’ instructions.

Monday’s COVID vaccine appointments will be rescheduled because of the impending snowstorm.

“The last thing we want to do is to urge our veterans to get out in the middle of a storm like this,” de Blasio said at a news conference on Sunday morning. “Does not make sense.”

Alternative side parking for Monday and Tuesday has been canceled. The mayor said the Monday evening restaurant / street program was also canceled.

A notice of dangerous travel will take effect on Monday and Tuesday.

DSNY was divided into 2 to 12 hour shifts to work 24 hours a day. The city has more than 270,000 tons of salt and 320,000 gallons of calcium chloride available.

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