NEW YORK CITY — Multiple car accidents on a Staten Island roadway, halted air traffic, and trecherous sidewalks had business as usual on hold Sunday morning, and city workers were racing around to try and keep New Yorkers on the move.
Nevertheless, the entire eastbound section of the Staten Island Expressway was shut down for hours between Fingerboard Road and Hyland Boulevard due to a "very heavy icing condition," and salt spreaders were set to work deicing that portion of the roadway after several accidents drew attention to an increasing problem of invisible ice, a spokeswoman from the Office of Emergency Management said.
The roadway reopened at around 10:45 a.m., the OEM reported at the public Twitter handle @NotifyNYC.
One crash, at 8:55 a.m., had six vehicles colliding, and one person sent to Staten Island Hospital, the FDNY said.
Meanwhile over at John F. Kennedy airport, air traffic was halted after an airplane from Toronto skidded off the runway as it taxied, stopping in a snowbank, the OEM confirmed.
Calls to the Port Authority were not immediately returned, but according to the AP, the incident occurred shortly after the Delta Connections flight touched down at 8 a.m.
JFK flights were temporarily suspended at the airport, but by 10:20 a.m. flights had resumed on two of the airport's four runways, the AP reported.
"Starting to get used to this view," tweeted Mashable editor Lance Ulanoff, who posted a photo of several planes waiting to take off on a runway.
In Manhattan, Lynne Adams warned "NYC watch out, there is ice everywhere. I fell down our front steps, hitting every one on the way down" on her Twitter account.
In Brooklyn Heights, Laurie Duncan posted from Atlantic Avenue near Henry Street, writing "rain atop frigid sidewalks = slippery patches of thin ice," adding "to dodge ice today I will NOT be taking the road less travelled."
