By Gabriela Resto-Montero, Della Hasselle, Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Staff
MANHATTAN — Students got a last-minute reprieve from Regents Exams as public schools were closed after another major snowstorm dumped 19 inches of snow on Manhattan, making it the snowiest January in the city's history.
It was the ninth time since 1978 that schools have been closed for snow, city officials said. Private schools, including the Dalton School, Marymount School and Trinity School were also closed because of the snow, as were a number of other institutions.
Schools Chancellor Cathie Black said the city is discussing Regents Exams options with the state. The Education Department announced early Thursday evening that seniors graduating this January would be allowed to use passing course grades to graduate, instead of the Regents exams.
The morning commute was a mess Thursday, with subway and bus service hit hard by the storm. By 9 a.m., most subway service was back to normal, the MTA said, but bus lines were slowly getting back on the road. The mayor promised during a morning press conference that all roads would be cleared by rush hour tomorrow morning.
PATH Trains had returned to their original weekday schedule as of 11:45 a.m., NJ Transit rail service had 30 minute delays and NJ Transit buses were canceled. The LIRR has delays on the Babylon, Hempstead, Long Beach, Montauk and Ronkonkoma lines.
Metro-North's New Haven line was out. The MTA urged riders to visit www.mta.info for service updates.
Newark and JFK airports were closed earlier due to the snow, but reopened about 9 a.m. and 10 a.m., respectively. LaGuardia experienced 90-minute delays as hundreds of flights at all three airports were delayed and canceled.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg — looking casual and wintery in a bright blue sweater — held a press conference Thursday morning to update the public on the city's snow removal efforts. He said that that all primary streets had been cleared and the plows were now working on secondary and tertiary streets.
But on the Lower East Side, a hearse hemmed in by snow circled the streets for hours while trying to get to a funeral in New Jersey.
"The streets ain't plowed, this is terrible," said driver Joe Carbone, as he waited for stuck cars to clear Ludlow Street so he could load the coffin into his hearse. He said he'd been driving around since 5 a.m.
Pallbearers finally loaded the coffin a little after 11 a.m. so the funeral procession to Alpine, N.J. could begin. Still, Carbone worried about the long trip still ahead.
"This is a nightmare," he said. "This is unbelievable."
Shoba Singh, 28, of the Bronx, was on her way to her IT job in Midtown on Thursday morning. She said she was surprised by the pile-up of snow in Manhattan.
"I'm actually surprised the city is so bad," said Singh. "In the Bronx the main streets are all cleared. I wasn't going to come in, but I looked out my window this morning and didn't seem so bad."
Bloomberg declared a weather emergency Wednesday night. This storm pushed January's snow totals to 36 inches of snow, making it the snowiest January on record and putting the month just 0.9 inches shy of the record for the snowiest month ever set in February of last year, according to the National Weather Service.
Both Friday and Saturday's forecasts call for a chance of snow showers and could be enough to beat the record, meteorologists said. Aside from the chance of light snow, the weekend's highs would be in the low 30s, according to AccuWeather.
Parking meters and alternate side parking rules were also suspended Thursday by the Department of Transportation due to the snow conditions.
Main highways had been plowed down to the blacktop and private plow contractors hired by the Department of Sanitation were already at work on secondary roads, Bloomberg said. There were nearly 2,000 pieces of snow-clearing equipment in use to clear the city's streets.
Despite the department's jump on the storm, commuters were still dealing with snow-clogged streets in Manhattan.
Midtown resident Carl Ingber, 30, was on his night shift as a private mail deliveryman early Thursday morning when his van got stuck in the snow at Seventh Avenue and West 52nd Street shortly after 3 a.m. and had to dig himself out.
"This is catastrophic," Ingber said. "You wonder if the Department of Sanitation is doing its job."
Employees headed in to early shifts dealt with ghost crews at work after many workers had trouble making in to Manhattan.
"I'm working three shifts today because all the other guys called in to say they couldn't make it," said Henry Diaz, 49, a doorman at the Michelangelo Hotel on West 51st Street.
Gary Gibbons, 44, a construction worker who lives on West 44th Street said his car was completely buried, forcing him to skip work in Brooklyn. He called the city's clean-up work "terrible."
"They block everybody in. Look, look everybody's blocked," he complained. "Some people don't even have shovels to dig themselves out."
But downtown, TriBeCa's Washington Market Park was filled with kids making snowmen and building snow forts. One snowman had pennies for the eyes and mouth.
"I like making snowmen and then sitting on their heads," said Jasper Clayton, 8, who lives in TriBeCa. Jasper said she had mixed feelings about school being canceled.
"I kind of think it's cool," said Jasper, who goes to St. Ann's School, "but also I'm sad because I love school."
In Harlem's Jackie Robinson Park, Baldemar Ibanez, 34, had the day off from his restaurant job and decided to take his third-grade daughter Anne, 8, to make a snowman that she named Bunny.
"We are going to play a little more and then go get some coffee to warm up," Ibanez said as he added twigs to decorate Bunny.
Anne said she was happy there was no school.
"I get to go outside and make a snowman," she said.
The rest of Thursday was expected to be clear and partly sunny with temperatures in the mid-30s and a high of 35 degrees.
"I think New Yorkers are becoming weak," said Sterling Grey, 20, from Hell's Kitchen who was on his way to work in Midtown. He said growing up here made him used to the snow and cold. "Leave it to Washington to freak out about the snow. This is New York, get used to it."
