Mayor Zohran Mamdani: Since last night, New York City has been in near-blizzard conditions. So far, the storm has dropped 16 to 19 inches on most parts of our city, with parts of eastern Staten Island reporting over 24 inches of snow. It has also brought extreme winds, with gusts reaching up to 60 miles per hour. Judging from current forecasts, the worst has passed. Conditions have begun to moderate, but there is still more to come.
Snow is projected to linger through the afternoon, with another 1.5 to 2.5 inches expected by 8 p.m. Wind gusts are expected to remain as high as 40 miles per hour into the evening. New York remains in a state of emergency. The travel ban has ended today at noon, but a hazardous travel advisory remains in place through midnight tonight. I continue to encourage all non-emergency traffic-cars, trucks, scooters, and e-bikes-to remain off the roads.
We are plowing streets and doing everything we can to keep our roadways clear so that emergency vehicles can get through. Every vehicle that stays off the road makes that work that little bit easier. These are dangerous conditions. Not only is snow continuing to fall, accumulated snowfall and refreezing have made it hazardous to travel. If you can, remain indoors. If you must leave your home, please rely on public transit.
I am grateful for our tireless agency teams who have been working non-stop to prepare our city for this blizzard and to keep New York running. This has been a full-force winter weather response operation, with 2,600 [Department of Sanitation] workers deployed on every 12-hour shift and over 2,300 plows, including 700 salt spreaders, mobilized citywide. In addition, DSNY has employed 575 emergency snow shovelers across our city last night, with more than 800 shovelers on the morning shift today.
Despite the act of blizzard, they were able to clear over 1,600 crosswalks, 419 fire hydrants, and almost 900 bus stops overnight, and that does not include what they have cleared since this morning. Amidst this, DSNY has been hard at work to expand their supervision capacity for the snow shoveler program, and as of today, they can now deploy 1,800 New Yorkers per shift. Due to the historic nature of this blizzard, we've increased pay to $30 per hour. You can walk into any DSNY garage until 8 p.m. this evening and then starting again at 9 a.m. tomorrow. All you need to bring is two forms of ID to ensure you get paid.
In addition to DSNY, the DOT has also cleared over 1,300 sheltered bus stops so far. All of this is managed through DSNY's BladeRunner 2.0 System, which monitors plowing and salting in real time. You too can track their live progress via our plow tracker at nyc.gov/PlowNYC. As of 12:30 p.m., DSNY has distributed over 50 million pounds of salt and plowed over 99.5 percent of city streets at least once.
As heavy snow continues to fall, every single street in every single borough will be plowed as many times as necessary to make it safe for emergency travel. As I mentioned earlier, parts of Staten Island are being hit hardest by this winter storm. In addition to existing efforts, DSNY is deploying 65 further pieces of equipment to Staten Island, and the NYPD Tow Truck Task Force is now operating especially heavily in the borough to free stuck vehicles, which include MTA buses. Our teams will continue to salt again and again throughout the day. This work has been a testament to the whole of government coming together to tackle a shared challenge.
The NYPD Highway Patrol will continue escorting DSNY to facilitate the salting and plowing of our streets, and the Downed Trees Task Force has been coordinating across the five boroughs. Again, I'm imploring New Yorkers to stay off the roads. The fewer passenger and commercial vehicles need to be assisted, the quicker we can respond to plows and emergency vehicles. And if you can cook at home, please do so instead of ordering food to be delivered, given the conditions.
I hope our students enjoy their snow day today and stay warm and safe throughout, but I do have some tough news to share. School will be in-person tomorrow. You can still pelt me with snowballs when you see me. Alternate side parking will be suspended through the week. NYC Ferry remains suspended for the rest of today, while the Staten Island Ferry is running half-hour service through the day. A decision will be made on tomorrow's service for both the Staten Island and NYC Ferries later today.
All public libraries across the city remain closed today. An update on reopening tomorrow will be made and shared later this afternoon. City buildings will be back open to the public tomorrow for in-person city services. Code Blue remains in effect, and an Enhanced Code Blue has been extended through Wednesday morning. Throughout this storm, our outreach workers have continually canvassed all five boroughs, helping homeless New Yorkers find shelter. Last night, outreach workers made 79 placements.
I want to be very clear, if you need warmth and shelter, it is available to you. This morning, our Department of Social Services accelerated the opening of another 100 low-barrier stabilization beds in Upper Manhattan, building on the additional capacity we added during the historic cold snap a few weeks ago. Across our city, we have had 22 warming buses, 11 Health + Hospitals warming spaces and 13 school warming centers open.
Our Health + Hospitals mobile warming units have been redeployed to provide clinical assistance, warm food, and clothing. By this afternoon, we will have 15 mobile warming units citywide. Our OnPoint overdose prevention centers were also open all of last night and will remain open today and overnight tonight as well. I continue to ask New Yorkers to check in on those who may be struggling. If you see someone in need of warmth or shelter, please call 311 immediately so outreach workers can assist.
In a Code Blue, these 311 calls will be rerouted to 911. You can also call 311 directly from our LinkNYC kiosks or use them to find the locations of warming centers across the city. We are aware that there were power outages across the city, including over 11,000 New Yorkers in the Rockaways who were without power this morning. NYCEM dispatched field personnel to check conditions and make repairs. Power has already been restored to more than 8,000 of those New Yorkers. As a contingency, NYCEM has opened warming centers at Far Rockaway High School, Beach Channel High School, and P.S. 43.
For New Yorkers dealing with heat or hot water issues, call your landlord immediately. If you do not hear back promptly, please call 311. HPD staff is working overtime and is on call to help. NYCHA has deployed additional staff this weekend, including technical teams to respond to elevator, heat, and any other repair issues that may arise. If you are a NYCHA resident dealing with a non-emergency issue, please call 718-707-7771 or submit a work ticket through the MyNYCHA application.
Lyft began clearing operations at Citi Bike stations this morning and have cleared 20 stations as of 11:30 a.m. With additional vendors starting at different points throughout the day, we expect their progress to rapidly accelerate as the afternoon continues. And operational agencies have been working to clear fire hydrants, crosswalks and bus stops around their property as well.
While DSNY continues to prioritize snow response, there will be delays in collection. There will be no collection of any material today, February 23rd, or tomorrow, February 24th. We will provide an updated plan on trash collection by end of day tomorrow on what collection will look like for the rest of the week. When we share that plan, we will be prioritizing trash and compost. Recycling will continue to be delayed into the following week. Please hold your recycling and wait to put it out until next week, as you would after certain holidays.
Our mandate for property owners to clear four-foot-wide paths across all sidewalks remains in effect. We issued more than 4,000 violations after the last storm. We do not want to issue as many citations again. So please, if you are a property owner, do your part, clear the snow, and help make our city passable for our neighbors, especially those with disabilities.
For those shoveling, take it slow. This snow is exceptionally wet and heavy. Your health comes first. Please protect your back and your heart by working slowly, and [to] make sure that you're taking frequent breaks. Older adults should stay indoors and should avoid shoveling. The coastal flood warning for low-lying coastal parts of our city ended at 5 a.m. this morning. There are no current warnings issued for our coast flood zones.
