Mayor de Blasio is defending his decision to declare a snow day for the city’s 1.1 million public school kids on Monday, saying every expert predicted there’d be a lot more snow than there was.
“It just did not look like a safe situation for kids based on the information we had,” he said at an unrelated press conference in Manhattan.
“We also consulted with a variety of experts – not just the National Weather Service – throughout the afternoon yesterday. Had we seen a variety of projections and opinions, we might have delayed the decision but every analysis was the same. It was very consistent and based on the information we had we thought it was important to make the decision and get the word out to parents.”
Former MTA Joe Lhota, who lost the 2013 mayoral election t🍒o de Blasio, was one of those who questioned the decision.
“Why exactly did we close public schools?” , adding a photo of CBS’ John Elliott delivering the snowfall totals ranging from 1.6 inches in Bergenܫ🎃 Beach, Brooklyn, to 3.8 inches in Central Park.
Meteorologists late Sunday predicted 6 to 8 inches of snow would blanket the Big Apple overnight — with up to 10 inches possible — prom𒉰pting Hizzoner to announce the scℱhools shutdown.
But warmer-than-expected▨ temperatures meant most of the snow melted rather than piling up on streets.
De Blasio was slammed for being unprepared in November, when a few inches of snow paralyzed the city just as the evening rush got underway.
The mayor insisted the two s🃏torms were not ꦐconnected.
“The last storm was very different, obviously, and it wasn’t around a time that would have affected school. So, really, the decisions we make are based on our history with storms that might have affected the opening of school,” he said.
He also pointed out it was the first snow day of the schoꩲol calendar year.