Schools Chancellor Cathie Black declared that public schools will remain open early this morning, with the city so far being hit with between 6 to 8 inches of snow across the five boroughs.
School field trips scheduled for today have been canceled, however. A handful of private schools have closed.
Those looking to catch a flight today will be stuck waiting out the storm. Most domestic flights at JFK, LaGuardia and Newark airports were canceled until early Wednesday afternoon, a spokesman for The Port Authority told CNN.
Mayor Bloomberg declared a "weather emergency" well before the snow began to fall in New York City at approximately 9 p.m. ET.
The bad weather offered an opportunity for redemption after city officials bungled the Dec. 26 blizzard that left buses, ambulances and plows stranded.
"We recognize that we did not do the job that New Yorkers rightly expected," he said. "We intend to make sure that does not happen again."
In the boroughs outside Manhattan, where streets went unplowed for days last month, there was skepticism as the storm barreled up the Interstate 95 corridor on Tuesday night.
"Once they do a big boo-boo like last time, you can't trust them anymore," grumbled Katherine Ischia, 87, a retired sewing machine operator sweeping snow off her Park Slope, Brooklyn, porch.
"The last time, they did absolutely nothing. They just sat down on their you-know-whats."
With the Christmas weekend storm, city officials failed to declare a snow emergency - even though the forecast called for up to 20 inches.
They didn't declare one this time, either, but invented the new term "weather emergency" to discourage people from driving and alert people to the crisis. It stops short of a snow emergency, which bans cars without chains or snow tires from major roads.
The city also secured extra plows and equipment, hired temporary workers and beefed up its ambulance fleet.
Source:http://www.nydailynews.com
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