Town’s total site visitors community has been shut down apart from emergency journey as a extreme snowstorm hits northeast US.
Printed On 23 Feb 2026
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has declared a state of emergency, ordering the shutdown of the town’s total site visitors community for all however emergency journey as a extreme snowstorm hits the northeast United States.
“NYC, we’ve declared a neighborhood state of emergency forward of this blizzard. Keep protected, New York,” he posted on X late on Sunday.
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The Nationwide Climate Service (NWS) warned {that a} extreme winter storm would deliver heavy snow, sturdy winds, and coastal flooding from the coastal mid-Atlantic to Maine by Monday.
Snowfall charges of as much as 3 inches (7.6cm) per hour will happen at occasions, with snowfall totals as excessive as 12 to 24 inches (30.5-61cm), leading to “almost unimaginable journey circumstances”, the NWS mentioned. Gusts of as much as 60mph (100km/h) have been doubtless late Sunday and into Monday, it added.
Energy outages are additionally anticipated resulting from sturdy winds mixed with the load of heavy, moist snow, it added. As of seven:30pm on Sunday (00:30 GMT on Monday), at the very least 22,895 prospects have been with out energy within the state of New Jersey, based on monitoring web site poweroutage.us.
Blizzard warnings have been issued by the climate service in New York state’s NYC and Lengthy Island; Boston, Massachusetts; in addition to coastal communities in New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland and Rhode Island. Emergency declarations have been issued in New York and New Jersey prematurely of the storm, as officers mobilised readiness efforts.
“It’s been some time since we’ve had a serious nor’easter and main blizzard of this magnitude throughout the Northeast,” Cody Snell, a meteorologist on the NWS’s Climate Prediction Middle, advised The Related Press information company. “That is positively a serious winter storm and a serious impression for this a part of the nation,” he mentioned.
The NWS in Boston warned of a “Probably Historic/Harmful Storm” southeast of the Boston-Windfall hall, writing on X that it was “very involved” about heavy snow and winds inflicting energy outages.
On Sunday night, the storm had already begun to hit New York, lowering visibility to the extent that the skyscrapers of Wall Road have been barely seen from the adjoining borough of Brooklyn.
In New York, with a inhabitants of greater than eight million, Mamdani mentioned streets, highways and bridges could be shut down from 9pm on Sunday (02:00 GMT, Monday) till midday (17:00 GMT) Monday.
“New York Metropolis has not confronted a storm of this scale within the final decade,” he mentioned, explaining the state of emergency. “We’re asking New Yorkers to keep away from all nonessential journey.”
The ban won’t apply to important staff or individuals who have to journey resulting from emergencies.
Brooklyn resident Brandon Smith, 33, complained that workplaces remained open, even when the roads weren’t.
“It’s gonna be tough for many New Yorkers to get round as a result of we nonetheless need to go to work. It’s unlucky [roads] are suspended as jobs will not be gonna cease calling us in,” he advised the AFP information company.
