New York Commuters Ask Why City Wasn't Prepared for Winter Storm Avery

New York City buses were delayed, but most subways were running on time as of 8 a.m. Friday morning after Winter Storm Avery left New York commuters stuck for hours as they tried to make their way home Thursday evening.

NYC Public Schools expected delays Friday morning following the storm but remained open. After-school activities and field trips were canceled. Due to high winds and the risk of falling branches, NYC Parks cautioned New Yorkers to avoid parks on Friday.

Despite the extra precautions after the storm, many New Yorkers still had to ask why more had not been done to prepare the country's largest metropolitan area for the snow.

Greg Sherry, the owner of Manhattan's Old Homestead Steakhouse, left the restaurant at West 14th Street and Ninth Avenue about 2 p.m. Thursday.

"It's 20 to 9 and I'm still an hour and a half from home," Sperry told weather.com in a phone interview later that night.

(MORE: Deadly Winter Storm Creates Chaos in Northeast)

He estimated he had another hour and a half of driving until he reached his house in Livingston, New Jersey. He says the commute usually takes 45 minutes.

At that hour, the state's 511 traffic information website was still a mass of bright red lines, indicating where traffic was stopped or moving at a crawl.

Jackknifed tractor-trailers, accidents and icy and snowy conditions made highways impassable at times.

Sperry said that as he left the city, he didn't see any snowplows or salt trucks on either side of Interstate 280, the route he normally takes.

"It's a total disgrace," he said. "The minute the snow started, why didn't they throw salt?"

(MORE: Why Winter Storm Avery Produced More Snow Than Expected In the New York City Area)

Sperry got off of I-280 and tried to navigate on surface streets, but he couldn't make the turns Waze was telling him to take because the roads were blocked.

"It's unbelievable," he said. "I should have stayed in New York."

Matthew Hayes of Ossining, New York, told weather.com it took him five hours to go from Gun Hill Road in the Bronx to Ossining 23 miles away.

"They did a terrible job. No salt, no nothing," Hayes said. "Cars just in the middle of the road. It was a parking lot. Insane, absolutely insane. I can't believe how bad it was."

(MORE: Check the Forecast for Winter Storm Avery)

Even travel inside the city was a nightmare.

Amy Sacks posted on Twitter, "Bronx is a mess. No plows, no salt. Been on Bxm10 close to 4 hours to go so far about 1.5 miles."

Multiple accidents shut down the George Washington Bridge about 4 p.m. The upper-level eastbound lanes were closed until about 6:30.

The New York Daily News reported that the Port Authority was so unprepared for the bad weather, it had to ask city Sanitation Department crews to plow the bridge. The Port Authority usually plows the bridge itself.

The Bayonne Bridge remained closed until about 9 p.m. Earlier in the afternoon, drivers couldn't make it up the new incline on the renovated bridge.

The Holland and Lincoln tunnels were experiencing delays of 90 minutes or more.

"Downed trees, closed bridges leading to stopped traffic, and more snowfall than forecasted made for challenging conditions today," the Sanitation Department tweeted, "but our salt spreaders and plows will continue working through the night to address snow/ice."

Commuters who relied on public transit weren't having it any easier.

The Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan was closed to any more passengers about 5:30 p.m. because it was so overcrowded, the New York Times reported. Only a limited number of buses were able to make it to the terminal in Manhattan. The line of people waiting to get into the terminal stretched around the block.

After being in line for an hour, Marlyne Page, an executive assistant who works in Midtown, was still a block away from the terminal's entrance and her bus to Passaic. “And this isn’t even a real storm,” she said. “Someone didn’t plan.”

Thursday night, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted, "First storm of the year hit hard and right at rush hour, downing trees and causing delays. @NYCSanitation plows and salt spreaders are making progress as traffic eases. They'll be out all night to get roads clear before the AM commute."

On Friday, de Blasio promised a "full review."

"We're all unhappy with what happened," he said. 

He said forecasts had led city officials to expect just an inch of snow. That meant city buses weren't equipped with snow chains and salters weren't out treating the roads ahead of the storm.

Trains were also facing long delays, as were the airports. At one point, ABC 7 reported, JFK reported three-hour delays, Newark reported nearly five-hour delays while LaGuardia reported delays of over an hour.