Gov. Cuomo Declares State Of Emergency As Blizzard Hits New York

Less than an hour after Mayor de Blasio warned that city officials were “seriously considering a full travel ban”, Gov. Andrew Cuomo made it official: the city will be under a travel ban on roads as of 2:30 p.m. today.

“If there’s any changes that we have to make, we will”, Cuomo said.

Public buses stopped running at noon in New York City.

Service on the suburban Metro-North and Long Island Railroad is being powered down, and the final trains will end service for the day at 4 p.m., Cuomo and Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said. “I wouldn’t say we’re even halfway there yet”, Maloney told CNN.

The blizzard also grounded most air travel into and out of the city. De Blasio asks New Yorkers to stay inside during the snow storm.

The National Weather Service is predicting between 2 and 10 inches of snow this weekend for the Lower Hudson Valley, with a winter storm watch in place for northern Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties and a warning in place for southern Westchester.

About 7 inches of snow had fallen on Washington D.C. – expected to be the bullseye of the storm -snowfall amounts in nearby Maryland ranged between 4.5 inches in Baltimore and 13.5 inches in Oakland. The statement reinforced the importance of keeping the roads clear so that emergency vehicles can get around unhindered as the weather worsens. “We actually have more emergency response equipment than we’ve had in the past, so once the storm finishes we’ll be in a better position to clean up after the storm”, said Cuomo.

In New Jersey, 40,000 people were without power early Saturday, majority along the coast.

More than 50 people have been forced from their homes around Atlantic City, New Jersey due to “significant flooding” related to the blizzard moving through the region, said Vince Jones, Atlantic City’s emergency management director. By late Friday, Virginia State Police had reported 989 auto crashes statewide since the storm began, and had assisted almost 800 disabled vehicles, said Ken Schrad, spokesman for the Virginia State Police Joint Information Center.