New York City is still under a winter storm warning from the National Weather Service as seven inches of snow blanketed the area on Friday morning.
Not only is Winter Storm Hercules the first storm of the year, it's also the first major challenge for the city's newly appointed Mayor Bill de Blasio. The mayor promised the city is ready and able to take care of New Yorkers as they ride out the storm.
"It would have been nice to have a calm first day, but we have snow on our mind, and we are focused like a laser on protecting this city and getting everyone ready," de Blasio said Thursday, according to The Weather Channel.
de Blasio heavily criticized then mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2010 when snow plows did not respond fast enough to residents, including de Blasio, living outside Manhattan during a winter storm that left 20 inches of snow, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"I intend to be on top of the action," de Blasio said, according The Weather Channel.
"I went to sleep with visions of snow in my head," the new mayor said, the Los Angeles Times reported. "I believe government needs to serve all five boroughs equally. That begins today."
City snowplows worked the streets all night. Authorities said 450 salt spreaders have been dispatched to cover the five boroughs, and another 2,500 trucks have been set with plows, The New York Times reported.
The snowplows have "been through most of the streets at least once if not two or three times," John J. Doherty, the sanitation commissioner, told The New York Times Friday.
The Metropolitan Transportation authority said the system is running at nearly 85 percent capacity, according to the New York Times. All buses, though delayed, were operating Friday with chains installed on their tires. The Metro-North and Long Island Railroad also remained opened, but were running on weekend schedules.
The city's Subways remained working Friday morning The New York Times reported.
de Blasio told the Los Angles Times his response to this snow storm has nothing to do with Bloomberg's blunder during the 2010 storm.
"I don't feel we have to get this right because of my past criticisms," he said. "We have to get this right because I am mayor of New York City."
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