New York. Jose Paulino had enough of the snow early Monday evening. “Please tell my homeowner that this thing is over now,” joked the caretaker of a four-story apartment building in Harlem, while shortly after dark he was shoveling the sidewalk and the entrance stairs for the fifth time that day. “My goddamn arms hurt.”
But the “thing”, as Paulino called the blizzard and which had smothered the entire Northeast in the past three days, was far from over. When the heavy snowfall slowly subsided on Tuesday afternoon, around 60 centimeters had fallen in Manhattan. Further north of the state, towards the Canadian border, it was up to ten centimeters more.
The heavy, wet snow did not lay down easily on the big city, but rather like a tough mass that paralyzes the gears. Within an hour it became quiet in New York on Monday, and car traffic ceased completely. Only city buses rattled up and down Broadway with snow chains, otherwise cross-country skiers populated the streets. In the residential areas, children built snowmen in the middle of the street, in the parks even the smallest slopes were turned into toboggan runs.
One of the ten heaviest snowfalls in the history of the city
Schools and public buildings were provisionally closed on Monday, and subway traffic from above-ground routes was stopped. Many people who used lines with aboveground sections had to abruptly interrupt their journey home and change to buses. Overnight, freight trains were used on all routes to de-ice the tracks.
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency across the state. There was talk of one of the worst snowstorms in New York history. When the end of the snowfall was in sight on Tuesday morning, the superlatives were put into perspective. In fact, it was one of the ten heaviest snowfalls in the city’s history. However, six of the ten worst storms on record in the 19th century have occurred in the past 20 years.
Many New Yorkers could still remember 2015 well when almost 80 centimeters of snow fell on the city within twelve hours. Back then the city was unprepared. School buses broke down, and an unheated subway line was stuck in a tunnel overnight.
Compared to then, New York weathered the onset of the weather this time almost smoothly. The evacuation teams were tirelessly on their way from the first minute, and the schools didn’t even open on Monday. As usual, no commuters got stuck in the city overnight.
A city that has been wallowing in restless sleep for months
The fact that the disruptions were limited was of course also due to the fact that New York has only been running on one piston since the beginning of the pandemic. The office skyscrapers in Midtown have been empty for almost a year. Better neighborhoods like the Upper West Side, where residents could afford to move, have been dead for months. New York has been under a “soft” lockdown since December. Many public institutions are closed. Schools are only partially open and restaurants are only allowed to serve outdoors. That is why the streets are full of makeshift buildings made of wooden panels that are heated with electric radiators. But on Monday and Tuesday these too remained empty.
The big blizzard in the city, which has been wallowing in restless half-sleep for months, remained largely without consequences. And instead of complaining about the interruption of the hectic New York rhythm, many New Yorkers were happy about the change. People romped around with their dogs in snowy Central Park. Parents played in the snow with their children.
“Even in normal years, snow is wonderful in the city,” said Sarah Friedman, who was out and about in Central Park with her six-year-old daughter. “This year is especially nice.” It was a day of calm and lightheartedness after the long months of being locked in and fear. And he gave people a little strength to get through the rest of the pandemic as well.
–
