APPLE ON THE ROCKS
Ice-capades loom as deep freeze moves in
Get set to skate through this storm.
An inch or so of overnight snow, a downpour and a bone-chilling blast of near-zero arctic air could turn city streets into an ice rink.
The storm will put the Big Apple in a deep freeze Sunday as temperatures steadily plunge, hitting an expected low of 6 degrees Sunday night, along with 15to 30-mph gusts.
And it won’t get much better Monday, when the high should be 17.
“With the cold and wind it could be dangerous to be outside for any length of time,” said AccuWeather meteorologist Alan Reppert. “It will feel like it’s be- low zero.”
A flash-flood watch issued for the city predicted one to two inches of rain right before the mercury begins to free-fall Sunday afternoon.
The city’s Sanitation Department said it was ready, with 700 salt spreaders, 1,600 plows and 2,300 workers set to work 12-hour shifts, said agency assistant chief Keith Mellis.
The city hopes to avoid a repeat of its dreadful response in November, when a small snowstorm nearly paralyzed Gotham.
“We strongly urge you to stay home tonight and tomorrow,” Mayor de Blasio tweeted at 11 a.m. Saturday.
“Don’t forget the trees,” clapped back a Queens resident on Twitter with the handle JQ LLC: “The last storm that you screwed up had hundreds of trees collapsing all across the five boroughs.”
De Blasio announced Friday that he had canceled his planned trip to Maine over the weekend because of the storm. Hizzoner was set to visit his 92-year-old aunt, Jean Wilhelm, who lives in the town of Eastport.
New Yorkers braced for the wintry blitz.
At the Crest Hardware store in Williamsburg, Bob Dittus, 55, and his wife, Mary Ellen, 58, worried that rain and numbing temperatures would create a “sheet of ice,” Dittus said.
Store owner Joe Franquinha had plenty of salt and ice-breakers for sale, but not many buyers.
“I think people are tired of gassing up for the storm and then less than an inch
Additional reporting by Anthony Izaguirre and Wire Services
of snow hits the ground and then they’re like, ‘Oh, I was freaking out for nothing,’ ” he said.
The frigid forecast scrambled schedules on Amtrak, which canceled some Sunday trains between New York, Pennsylvania and Boston.
Gov. Cuomo banned tractor-trailers and buses on the entire Thruway system, with the exception of I-95 in Westchester and The Bronx.
NJ Gov. Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency, starting at noon Saturday. “This is one where we’ve got all bases covered,” the governor said during a morning radio interview.