De Blasio Cancels Trip To Maine As Winter Storm Looms

NEW YORK — Mayor Bill de Blasio has canceled his weekend jaunt to Maine so he can keep an eye on the winter storm approaching the city. The mayor was scheduled to leave for Eastport, Maine on Friday and give a talk on Saturday at the Eastport Arts Center, where his 92-year-old aunt has been heavily involved.

But de Blasio said he would call off the trip midday Friday as the storm threatened to coat the city with ice and up to six inches of snow.

"I’ve always said if there’s something here that demands my attention I change my plans accordingly," he said at a news conference.

The arts center's website confirmed that the talk has been postponed. It was supposed to be titled "50 Years After MLK: The Path to Progressive Change Today." De Blasio, a Democrat, was also expected to attend the Women's March in Eastport, according to his press secretary.

The mayor and his administration caught flak after the last major snowstorm in mid-November crippled city streets, leaving drivers trapped in traffic for hours.

Calling that event a "freak storm," de Blasio on Friday said city officials weren't expecting so much snow to fall and blamed the chaos on the closure of the George Washington Bridge.

But the city learned its lesson from the last storm and now plans to "over-communicate" with New Yorkers about the coming one, the mayor said.

"We now have decided to take a stance where what the National Weather Service tells us is only an indication to us," he said. "We are going add a lot more on top of it in terms of our assumptions, because we have to be very, very conservative. "

The city's Sanitation Department is "preparing for the worst" ahead of the first snowfall on Saturday, Commissioner Kathryn Garcia said. She warned that any precipitation that hits the ground over the weekend will stick around until Monday because of how cold temperatures will get.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo activated 300 members of the National Guard to help with transportation support and debris clearance as upstate New York braced for at least a foot of snow. The MTA plans to pull its longer articulated buses off the road by Saturday afternoon, Cuomo's office said.

De Blasio suggested he would be "hands-on" in his response to this storm as he has in the past.

"I tend to get very physical during storms," he said. "I have tremendous shoveling skills."

(Lead image: Mayor Bill de Blasio appears on Staten Island on Friday. Photo by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)