Cold, Blasting Winds Cause Problems In Tri-State Area On Christmas Day
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Some New Yorkers did indeed get a white Christmas this Monday, but others were stuck with a very windy one.
As CBS2's Ali Bauman reported, LaGuardia Airport was calm with little vehicular traffic, few flight delays, and most schedule changes involved early landings. But for those sticking around in New York City, the weather was not so pleasant.
CBS2's Vanessa Murdock reported the wind was gusting up to 23 mph at Central Park as of 5 p.m. But earlier in the afternoon, there were gusts of more than 60 mph on Long Island.
In Whitestone, Queens, firefighters circled a disheveled pile of scaffolding in Whitestone, Queens Monday morning. Rickety metal beams had been set up beside a house under construction, and they were no match for the wind.
The beams collapsed across a neighbor's fence and landed right on top of his house.
"I thought they were just taking boards down until I came out and saw the whole structure down on my roof," said Tenny Leeton of Whitestone.
Even some trees could not compete with the wind in New Jersey Monday morning. In Livingston, one tree got tangled up in cable and phone lines. Another fell on power lines in South Brunswick, where there were about 2,000 power outages Monday morning.
But it wasn't just wind in New Jersey. Drone Force 2 captured a picturesque white Christmas in Vernon.
Meanwhile on Rockland County, snow plows were starting their rounds on Route 304 just as Santa finished his.
"To come out to this it's a wonderful thing, and I'm going to go out and start snow plowing," said Mike O'Rourke of Orangeburg.
The joy of waking up Christmas morning to snow blanketing the ground: In Pearl River, there was just enough for a tiny snowman.
"My grandchildren were thrilled, thrilled when they looked out the window," one woman told CBS2's Magdalena Doris.
Families were clamoring for fresh-out-of-the-oven bread, braving the snow before the sun rose, to get to Rockland Bakery.
It's a warm and toasty place to spend a white Christmas morning, thinking of those dear to one's heart.
"Family, our law enforcement, military, every brother in blue," one man said.
"It's a great feeling waking up with two beautiful kids at home, my daughter's home from college, it's a beautiful thing," another woman told Doris.
Katie Norris drove through the snowfall Christmas morning on her way down from New Hampshire, after her flight was canceled.
"It started snowing in New York and then some in Connecticut, but once I hit Connecticut and the city, it was fine," Norris said. "I was like, 'Phew!'"
Peter Sharp was just happy that his flight from Boston actually made it off the ground Monday morning, after waiting on the runway for about an hour.
"Once we de-iced, we were number nine in line. Then the airport was going to change runways and put everything on hold, and then they went back to the original runway and we eventually got out," Sharp said.
But once his plane came closer to New York, he started feeling the gusty winds.
"It was bumpy coming through, especially on the way down here in LaGuardia," Sharp said.
A bitter blast is on its way in the coming days. The temperature at Central Park as of 5 p.m. was a just-above-freezing 34 degrees, with the wind chill making it feel like 25.
As 1010 WINS' Andrew Falzon reported, some New Yorkers were already feeling the cold Monday night.
"The winter was good, because you get the extra money," said Rob, a former New York City sanitation worker.
When he was employed, Rob used to get cold, hard-earned cash when there was cold weather. But now that he is retired, cold weather just means a bitter chill – and doing what you can to stay warm.
"I don't mind sweating," he said. "I just didn't like the cold."
Those who were out and about on Christmas night were not thrilled that a cold snap is coming.
"I guess we're going to have to really warm up, put the heat on really high, and we're going to wear a lot of galoshes, I guess," said a woman named Patti. "It's not snowing or anything, is it?"
The wind chill will drop to making it feel like 16 later Monday night, and will make it feel like 13 degrees in the city, and 5 below zero in Liberty, at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
