NYC Blizzard Chaos, Death, & Tragedy: Newborn Baby Dies, Subway Still Stopped, Buses Trapped, Mayor Bloomberg Criticized for Slow Snow Removal (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on December 29, 2010
Airport bus trapped in snow for three days now, blocking busy side street in New York City (click image to enlarge) | Photo credit: Pamela Hall, via Atlas Shrugs
Chaos, anger, frustration, fear, preventable deaths… the savage Christmas blizzard of 2010, one of the worst snow storms in New York City’s history, is taking its toll on millions of New Yorkers.
From The Blaze, Newborn Baby Dies After Waiting 9 Hrs for Emergency Help in NYC Blizzard:
A newborn baby died in Brooklyn on Tuesday after her mother waited nine hours for emergency personnel to respond to her call for help.
The baby was delivered inside a building vestibule in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights. The mother, a 22-year-old college student, called 911 for help but emergency personnel were unable to access her because of snow-covered streets. When personnel finally arrived, the baby was unconscious and unresponsive. The newborn was taken to a local hospital and eventually declared dead.
“No one could get to her. Crown Heights was not plowed, and no medical aid came for hours,” the newborn’s grandmother told the New York Daily News.
Elsewhere in New York City, a Queens woman tried for 20 minutes to reach a 911 operator to request assistance for her mother. When she finally reached someone, it took personnel three hours to reach her mother. She died before anyone showed up.
From Atlas Shrugs, BUMBLING BLOOMBERG WORSE THAN LINDSAY: CHAOS IN NYC:
You can take the measure of a mayor by how he handles some difficulty … like snow. In New York City, it’s how we judge our mayor. Clean the streets, keep us moving. And based on that simple test, Bloomberg is an abject failure. OMG.
While our Ground Zero mosque-obsessed mayor has been toiling to facilitate, expedite, and erect a victory mosque on the hallowed ground, the cemetery of Ground Zero, the city falls into chaos, disrepair, and bankruptcy. Bloomberg worked behind the scenes to get the Ground Zero Mosque approved — he is obsessed with submission.
Like some madman on a mission to build mecca in the Hudson — Bloomberg is incapable of handling the most fundamental of tasks.
Bloomberg responds to mounting criticism…
Associated Press: NY Mayor Defends City Response to Storm | December 2010
From NBC New York, Mayor Mike Admits City Response Fell Short:
A contrite Mayor Bloomberg regretted the sluggish pace of snow removal and admitted that he was “extremely dissatisfied” with the city’s emergency response — but he refused to give reasons or place blame.
“We did not do as good a job that we wanted to do or the city has a right to expect,” he said at a briefing in the South Bronx Wednesday afternoon.
While he also announced “steady progress” in finally clearing the streets, his Sanitation Commissioner warned that it would take until 7 p.m. Wednesday, or even 7 a.m. Thursday, before plows reached every block.
On the third day after a monster storm dumped more than two feet of snow on the hardest hit parts of the city, thousands remain marooned on icy, unplowed streets. The blizzard is also being blamed for a still birth in Crown Heights Monday after a dispatcher categorized a woman’s labor pains as a lower priority and then ambulances had trouble reaching her.
“Your heart has to go out to anybody who has lost a loved one,” said Bloomberg when asked about deaths attributed to the storm.
More than 48 hours after the snow stopped, many in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island remain stranded, officials said. Plows have worked on 99 % of primary streets, 86% of secondary one and 66% of tertiary roads, Bloomberg said, but extensive swaths of the outer boroughs remain buried.
“We got 29 inches of snow, where the heck are the plows?” asked Elizabeth McDaniel of the Great Kills section of Staten Island. “We are stranded on Highland Road with many elderly people.”
After widespread stoppages, city subway service was almost back to normal with the N train and the Franklin Avenue shuttle the only lines still out, said MTA Chairman Jay Walder.
Bloomberg defended Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty as “the best,” saying his agency had the same amount of plows and people deployed as in past storms but the formula didn’t work as well this time, the mayor said.
NYDN: Blizzard Penn Station Madness | December 2010
More than 1,730,000 hits on this jaw-dropping video on YouTube so far… be aware there’s some profanity (IMO, it’s more than justified):
NY’s Dumbest: NYC Sanitation Workers Destroy a Ford Expedition | December 2010
From New York Daily News, Death of newborn baby among several blizzard tragedies as city is accused of ‘dropping the ball’:
A blizzard baby delivered inside the lobby of a snowbound Brooklyn building died after an emergency call of a woman in labor brought no help for nine excruciating hours.
The baby’s mother, a 22-year-old college senior, was recovering Tuesday night at Interfaith Medical Center, where her newborn was pronounced dead at 6:34 p.m. on Monday. That was 10 hours after the first 911 call from the bloody vestibule on Brooklyn Ave. in Crown Heights.
“No one could get to her. Crown Heights was not plowed, and no medical aid came for hours,” said the student’s mother.
By the time a horde of firefighters and cops finally trooped to her aid through snow-covered blocks, the baby was unconscious and unresponsive, sources said.
Details of the tragedy emerged as the abominable snowstorm continued to wreak havoc across a city still digging out from the wintry blast. Some of the other blizzard horrors include:
- In Queens, a woman tried to reach 911 operators for 20 minutes Monday and then waited for three hours for first responders to arrive. By then, her mom had died, state Sen. Jose Peralta’s office said.
Laura Freeman, 41, said her mother, Yvonne Freeman, 75, woke her at 8 a.m. because she was having trouble breathing. When the daughter couldn’t get through to 911, she enlisted neighbors and relatives, who also began calling.
One of the callers reached an operator at 8:20 a.m., but responders stymied by snow-clogged streets didn’t reach the Corona home until 11:05 a.m., said Peralta, who wants the death investigated.
“The EMS workers walked down the block trudging through snow,” Freeman said. “They tried. I could tell by the look on their faces. I really would just like [Mayor] Bloomberg to admit that there were casualties.”
- A woman in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, was forced to spend the night with her dead father after the medical examiner’s office took more than 24 hours to claim his body. Ismael Vazquez died at 10:31 a.m. on Monday, and the 82-year-old man’s body remained in his bed until 1 p.m. yesterday. His daughter kept vigil in the living room.
“This is New York City, and I’m a New Yorker, and this is not the first storm we’ve ever had,” said Florence Simancas, 51, holding back tears. “Somebody dropped the ball … big-time.”
From The Lonely Conservative, Why Can’t NYC Get the Snow Out of the Streets?:
There was a man on the news this morning who said after working eight hours he took the train home. It took him twenty hours to get there! Twenty hours! He had to turn around and go back to work. I wonder how long it took him to get back. I hope he managed to sleep during his long train ride.
I just don’t understand why they can’t get the snow cleared out of New York Cities and its borough’s streets. I know, they aren’t prepared like we are here in upstate New York, but still. The storm happened days ago. You’d think they would have the streets plowed by now. No wonder people believe the unionized workers charged with plowing are sitting down on the job.
A poll conducted by New York Daily News, as of December 29, 2010 — 69% of those taking the poll feel the city should have been better prepared for the blizzard. Results are subject to change:
A Slow NYC Snow Cleanup – New York Post | December 2010
From Examiner, NYC crippled by blizzard and gov’t incompetence; infant death latest casualty:
Heck of a job, Bloomie.
That’s New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in case you’re wondering. And despite his repeated protestations that “we’re doing all we can,” the city response to Sunday’s blizzard has been so anemic that one might think that 20 feet of snow had fallen here instead of two.
Planes—and passengers—continue to sit idle at city airports, many of the subway lines and buses remain down, and in the boroughs outside of Manhattan streets are a winter wonderland.
Not that there’s anything wonderful about the tragedies that have occurred because emergency personnel were unable to reach victims on streets that should have been cleared of snow by now. The latest and so far youngest victim was a baby born last night inside the lobby of a snowbound Brooklyn apartment building. Calls to 911 by a young mother in labor went unanswered for 10 hours because the EMTs were unable to negotiate the unplowed streets. By the time help arrived, the newborn was dead.
More reporting from NYDN… New Yorkers, stop complaining about the snow: City Hall is doing its best to recover from blizzard:
On Sunday, New York City experienced one of the biggest snowstorms in its history, but almost as soon New Yorkers took stock of their winter wonderland, they started doing what they do best: complaining.
Just take a look at some of the comments on a New York Times blog about the supposedly slow pace of snow removal. “City has never been this disorganized!” went one complaint. “Mr. Mayor, do the residents of our neighborhood not contribute enough to the city’s productivity?” asked a furious Brooklyn resident.
A livery driver told the Associated Press, “Mayor Bloomberg, he’s a rich man, so he doesn’t care about the little people… They always abandon Queens.”
But while the snow is frustrating, that frustration is being misdirected at City Hall. Having worked as an assistant sanitation commissioner and, later, the transportation commissioner, I know that the city is doing the best it can – in some of the toughest natural circumstances imaginable.
This was a particularly difficult storm to fight. Snow fell at a rate of 2 to 3 inches an hour, while winds gusted to as high as 80 mph. A Weather Channel announcer said that the barometric pressure measured in the eye of this storm was equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane.
Most streets would have to have been plowed more than once every hour just to maintain a minimum amount of clearance. With nearly 20,000 lane miles of streets and several hundred lane miles of highway, the city would need about 5,000 garbage trucks equipped with plows to clean each street every hour. But the city has fewer than 2,000 garbage trucks, so an average street would not be plowed for several hours after snow stopped falling.
Someone might wonder why the city doesn’t just purchase 3,000 more trucks. But to do that in anticipation of a snow emergency is not practical, since 2,000 is all the city needs to pick up the garbage.
NY Daily News, Cars stuck in the blizzard | December 2010
From My Way News, Snowbound New Yorkers upset about unplowed streets:
NEW YORK (AP) – A windy winter storm that dumped nearly 2 feet of snow on New York City also whipped up criticism about how the city responded to it.
Some New Yorkers in the outer boroughs complained that the city took too long to plow their neighborhoods, ignoring them in favor of wealthier Manhattan areas.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the fast pace of snowfall – 2 to 3 inches per hour at some periods overnight – and the amount of people who abandoned cars in the road delayed the progress of the plows.
“Those cars have to be towed before plowing can resume, which really slows things up,” he said.
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Nice collection of POVs….thanks for putting together.
The following is a polite message to the “Conservatives” who read this and are complaining about the City’s response to the snow removal…
You like small government; you’re conservative. Government isn’t supposed to solve your problems, right?
Less Government = Lower Expenditures = Lower Taxes = Less Services
…..except for when you want the government to solve all your problems.
I know hindsight is 20/20, but here’s a thought, instead of having wasted time complaining and standing around taking pictures of the snow not being removed, shouldn’t you have encouraged people to go out and buy shovels. Then the snow would have been removed and the people who sell shovels ( mostly small businesses) would have realized a windfall profit. That is the true “Conservative” approach, right?
To the Liberals: Sorry. NYC let you down…It’s likely the City might need to spend more on snow removal in fiscal 2011, but first it’s likely there at least needs to be an informal committee organized to investigate whether there should be a formal committee formed to conduct a thorough investigation and make recommendations to several sub-committees about what should be done and how it should be funded…
Happy New Year!
“Government isn’t suppose to solve your problems.”
Not at all correct, but many liberals either err or love to misstate conservatives’ principles and agenda – conservatives want SMALLER government, dear heart, not NO government.
Check the Constitution for what IS the government’s role – security and maintenance of means of transportation (i.e., roads, highways, bridges, etc.) are clearly defined there. This NYC snow storm falls into BOTH categories and the local government failed miserably. However, government-mandated health care isn’t in the Constitution. Amnesty for illegal aliens isn’t, either. Global warming huckster taxation isn’t. Food policing isn’t. Conservatives want more adherence to the Constitution and less micro-management meddling and taxation from the government. Less taxation, not NO taxation.
I also understand that there was a shovel shortage in NYC… hmmm, imagine that. Maybe New Yorkers should have gone out and removed the snow with their bare hands?
Word on the street now is that the NYC snow problem was escalated by the unions having snow plow dudes and dudettes work slower… interesting turn of events that is just now being uncovered (pun intended).
If George W. Bush is still being blamed and vilified for the natural catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, can we expect liberals to go after Barack Obama with the same snarling bloodlust and blame and vilify him for the natural catastrophe of the NYC Christmas Blizzard?
Nah, didn’t think so.
You can hardly blame the city for most of this. people didn’t move their cars off the streets. Many even tried to drive through the snow on un-plowed roads. Why? They are the reason ambulances couldn’t get through. As to the newborn, the first caller to 911 stated that it wasn’t an emergency. 911 tried to call back twice and got no response. She has stated she was trying to keep the birth a secret. When she did finally give birth, she was attended and police were there to try to revive the child. In Maine, we don’t drive during a heavy snow, and those of us on side streets wait a day or two for the plows to get to us. Don’t leave your car in the way or get in the way yourself, then blame government because they can’t work around you.
“Check the Constitution for what IS the government’s role – security and maintenance of means of transportation (i.e., roads, highways, bridges, etc.) are clearly defined there.”
Oh, my this isn’t a constitutional issue, the responsibility to remove snow is mandated as a part of property ownership; NYC owns the local roads and therefore must maintain them, i.e. remove the snow. If you are truly a conservative, there’s no need to criticize the Mayor in this case – who brought the Republican Convention here BTW – rather you have a strong case for disbanding the NY Department of Sanitation, if you present it alongside solid analysis around the benefits of Privatization…..so good luck with that.
As for the lack of shovels, that was a funny one. Just about every super in the city has a shovel or two (because they get fined if they don’t remove snow). Anyway, as it turns out there was no great shovel shortage, what we were missing in NYC were TVs:
http://stuytownluxliving.com/2010/12/stuy-town-blames-snow-removal-issues-on-broken-tv.html
TVs… hilarious!
BTW – this story is now old. You may not have read the latest about the unions reportedly slowing down on snow cleanup because of retaliation against budget cuts and possibly to make the mayor look incompetent: Was NYC the Sacrificial Pawn in Union’s Accused Snow Clean-up Slow-down? Whistleblowers Say Snow Removal Deliberately Delayed Because of Budget Cuts (video)
On the shovels, here’s what I had read:
US Constitution, 10th Amendment:
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
NY State Constitution:
The baby dying is inexcusable. I hpe the investigation goes to the full letter of the law & punsihes all who are responsibile.
Starting with Mr. M. Bloomberg… He is the major. He is responsible for everything that is related to his government. Therefore he should responde not only for the baby case but for the 75 woman dying, when her daughter and all the neibors try to call 911 for over 20 minutes. The man who died in Brooklyn (same thing as the woman in Queens) and all the rest of the cases.
Regardless of WHAT people COULD HAVE DONE or DID, we pay our taxes and it is NOT OUR RESPONSIBILITY NOR OUR OBLIGATION to plow the streets and keep them clean and safe.
What we should do now that the SNOW EXCUSE is not an excuse anymore? Take the trash THE CITY IS SUPPOSED TO BE PICKING and take to the processing center? Is the state and the city going to DEDUCT the proportional of taxes equivalent to the work WE HAVE TO DO because Mr. Bloomberg is more into SPENDING A WHOLE DAY AT THE ROOF TOP OF THE TIME WARNER BUILDING WITH TWO OBVIOUSLY WHORY GIRLS THAT WALKED INTO THE BUILDING WITH HIM (as every week), this time to FILM PROJECT RUNWAY?
He is a disgrace. He doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the people of this city. He is always with that effing smirk on is face not only reminding us all about the effing monkey that used to be our president but also laughing on our face about how bad we get EFFED by him and his people (for references check the videos on the announcement of the MTA Fares going UP yet one more time!)
I just hope he suffers… for a long time. I hope he twist and turn for ages when the time comes. Not a painless and quick death. NO! A long, twisted, devastating and neverending one that reminds him that KARMA IS A B*TCH!
Correction – Michael Bloomberg is the mayor of New York City, not the “major” as you wrote.
And as far as placing all blame on him, you may not be aware that there is now an investigation into the sanitation union having the snow-plowing employees slow down or miss entire streets in retaliation for recent NYC budget cuts. Whistle blowers have stepped forward, not necessarily to defend Mayor Bloomberg, but to be honest about what’s been going on.
Time will tell… yes, Bloomberg must shoulder some of the blame (part of his job), but the greed-driven unions may have deliberately caused this crippling of NYC. All for the sake of money.
Times Square sure was cleared of snow for last night’s Dick Clark/Ryan Seacrest New Year Eve’s show. Maybe now the rest of the city will also be cleared of snow – finally. Bloomie may not be totally to blame but he needs to take some of the blame for this disaster.
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