We’re melting!
A day after the Great Whiteout of ’06 dumped a record 26.9 inches of snow on the Big Apple, the sun came out, temperatures rose into the 30s, and the Great Melt began.
“We’re having a warm spell after the storm, and the snow is melting quite rapidly,” Mayor Bloomberg exulted. “Tomorrow and the next couple of days, it’s going to be warm.”
The Great Melt meant major streets and roadways were clear, and the Long Island Rail Road resumed service on all lines by mid-afternoon.
But school attendance was down to 62 percent from 87 percent. And delays and cancellations continued to plague the Apple’s three major airports – especially La Guardia, where more than 150 flights were canceled and some passengers had been camping out since Saturday night.
In the past, Bloomberg has said that snowstorms cost the city $1 million an inch, but yesterday he doubted that the Great Whiteout would cost $26.9 million.
Because of the Great Melt and the fact the storm happened on a Sunday – allowing plows to move around more easily – the cleanup probably won’t cost any more than a 12-inch snowstorm, the mayor said.
But he declined to say definitively that the work would cost $12 million.
The mayor also warned that the city will crack down today on building owners who haven’t cleaned their sidewalks.
And in response to claims by some that it just didn’t feel like the worst snowstorm in the city’s history, Bloomberg insisted the official Central Park measurements were right.
“I suspect there’s enough oversight that the measurements were accurate,” he said.
At La Guardia yesterday, nobody had to tell stranded passengers they were the victims of a major snow job.
Dick Coveney and Sue Weaver, of Detroit, grabbed a corner bench, put their luggage together to make a table and watched movies on a DVD player they had rented at the airport.
Coveney said they had been camping out since Saturday night and hoped to leave today.
“It’s terrible,” he said. “We took a week of vacation, and now were missing more time.
In Jamaica, Queens, 78-year-old Gladys Zavala shoveled snow outside her home at 90th Avenue and 153rd Street.
“I love it,” said the spry woman, adding that she walks 30 or 40 blocks every day. “It’s not so hard. You just have to know how to take the snow.”
In Central Park, Spencer Weisbond, 35, climbed aboard his Snowski – a combination of a skateboard and snowboard – and zipped down a hill.
“It goes faster than all the little rugrats,” he said, motioning to the kids sledding nearby.
Additional reporting by Erin Calabrese