I have cousins that are driving in this snow. Their father is in a hospital in Brooklyn, and they are trying to get there from Delaware. He is dying. I’m afraid to ask, but are the bridges and tunnels all closed?
That’s so sad, greenwitch.
There’s a travel ban in New York City. The bridges and tunnels are closed.
@greenwitch – I don’t know about the bridges, but I would assume they are also shut. Road ban in effect from 2:30 this afternoon until 7am tomorrow. Sorry about your cousins. I hope they are safe while driving.
12:43 PM ET
Jan 23, 2016
Sat Jan 23 2016 07:43:00 GMT-0500 (EST)
Officials Order New York Road Ban at 2:30 P.M.
A travel ban in downstate New York, including New York City, will go into effect at 2:30 p.m., Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said that any civilians found driving on the city’s streets after then would be “subject to arrest.”
I just heard that they made it to Elizabeth, NJ and are waiting for the bridges and tunnels to open. I’m glad they got that far at least.
OK, just heard that they made it to the hospital in Brooklyn. There must be a special lane open and they talked their way through. I don’t want to press for details at this time but I’m glad they’re there and they’re safe.
@garland Hi, neighbor!
I think it finally stopped snowing. We did not venture out to shovel at all today. Too windy. The snow drifts are huge! I am not looking forward to digging out tomorrow. On the plus side, it has been so quiet without any cars on the road.
@deb922 - I’m also in the Lehigh Valley. Official snow total is 31" for the day. It’s stopped snowing for now. Lot’s of huge drifts. The snowplow came through our neighborhood once but that was hours ago. The beaches in New Jersey and Delaware are flooding as well as some low-lying towns that have rivers. This has been a record breaking one day snow dump for us.
Wow. We have about 30" in Phillys western burbs. Plows have been unable to get around. I can’t even tell where my driveway is. The drifts are halfway up all doors. Had to shovel a lot just to make a one square yard spot for the dog to do his business.
I can’t imagine when we will be able to get out. Made soup and did a lot of work at home. Plus laundry. Good thing I brought lots of files home.
Greenwitch, glad they made it safely and were able to talk their way through.
Official snow totals in the Washington Post had North Potomac, MD at the top of the list with 36.5 inches!
Most places in NYC had over 2 ft. of snow by 7 p.m. and it hasn’t stopped yet, although it will soon.
Re NYC snow days: the city is very stingy with them. Because few kids travel on school buses and most places are accessible by public transportation, the city tries to keep schools open so that parents won’t have to jeopardize their jobs staying home with kids. I think we had fewer than 5 snow days from when my daughter started pre-k in 2000 until she graduated from high school in 2014.
Off topic but – @surfcity – Philly’s western burbs? And all this time I was trying to figure out whether you were from Huntington Beach or Santa Cruz, CA. With that screen name I thought it had to be one of the two!
Keep warm everyone!
On the subject of NYC:
They tend to try VERY hard not to have snow days, as do most urban districts. For starters, once public transportation is up and running, most of the kids can get to school. (The faculty, of course, is a different matter.) But the suburban kids tend to depend on district run busses. So in addition to getting the parking lots open, it means it’s the district’s responsibility (or that of the bus companies they subcontract) to get the busses cleared off. I know that my private HS has something like 87 different busses coming and going each day for our 2700 kids.
More than that, though, closing schools in NYC is a HUGE childcare issue. It means that parents have to scramble to get someone to watch their kids. A good number of those parents don’t get paid if they don’t work, so it’s a real issue.
And a number of kids in any urban district get one or two meals a day at school. If there’s no school, there’s no hot lunch. In particular when it’s cold, those kids need hot meals, and they only get those hot meals when there’s school.
I know, school’s supposed to be about education. But all those other factors need to be taken into consideration before calling a snow day-- they’re absolutely part of the equation.
Oh, and in central Nassau County Long Island, we got 27". My spoon is under my pillow tonight for a snow day tomorrow. Still lots of concerns for coastal flooding the next one or two high tide cycles.
Glad to hear you are safe and warm @bjkmom. I think you are getting that snow day but if not, it means things are going okay and that would not be a bad thing.
As of 7 am, travel ban in NYC lifted, all Port Authority bridges and tunnels open. But MTA rail and bus still suspended.
D1 had smooth sailing driving thru RI and is pretty close to New Haven now. From live cams on 95, looks like they plowed as soon as the worst stopped. Looks like the NJ Turnpike and GSP are also pretty good. Not that this helps most of you.
We “only” got about 16 inches, which is about 15.5 inches more than I would have liked. I’m annoyed with our plow guys: They came and plowed last night when we had about 10 to 12 inches in the driveway and they never came back. It’s now bright and sunny and I’ve got something like 4 inches I’m going to have to shovel.
Or Surf City, NJ on Long Beach Island. That was my guess. 
I’m so sorry to hear this greenwitch. NYC isn’t alone in feeding kids their only meals and daycare and transportation issues. Rural areas get it even worse.
Yes I’m in Maryland. …southern maryland. …and the next answer is no, not the eastern shore…lol. I can’t tell you how many times that question is asked after I say southern. Today begins the big dig, and I’m so glad my gadget obsessed husband bought a snow thrower years ago. The landscapers do plow driveways but my experience has been they take days to get to individual customers and then do a half assed job.
I really need to open the office tomorrow so once we’re plowed out we’ll go make sure the landlord has gotten the parking lot plowed.
Certainly NYC is not alone in feeding kids and providing them with a safe place while parents work. But that, coupled with the close proximity of students homes to their schools, is the reason that we have very few snow days. Snow days are very rare here.
We are waiting for flood waters and the latest high tide to recede so we can go check out two of our stores. We know that they both took on water , but we are only worried about one of them…yesterday, the police department in that town didn’t even answer their non-emergency phone number. All of the networks have been reporting from the neighboring town which had very heavy flooding…