Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
FDNY, EMS Response Compromised During Blizzard
By
Jen Chung
Published Dec 27, 2010
Modified Dec 27, 2010
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
Jen Chung
Published Dec 27, 2010
Modified Dec 27, 2010
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
With yesterday's and today's blizzard, it's been tough transportation conditions for all vehicles, like FDNY vehicles and ambulances. We've heard that some firefighters responding to situations have had to wait hours for ambulances and 1 Police Plaza (an unofficial police/emergency response activity observer) Tweeted, "FDNY EMS has a aprox 5 hoour delay to Emergencies. FDNY personal are advised not to do CPR more then 20 min due to high vol of jobs." And one veteran medic believes, "The city really dropped the ball in this snowstorm."
The medic says:
Multiple ambulances are stuck all over the city, and response times to high priority jobs are nonexistent. The roads here in Brooklyn have not been cleared, there are abandoned vehicles all over the place, and EMS has come to a standstill, unknown how fire suppression and NYPD are faring. The city should have preemptively declared an emergency, made sure that nonessential vehicles stayed off the road, and sanitation should have coordinated better to have main roads and roads leading to hospitals cleared. The city is in a chaotic state, and someone should demand to see how many people had passed away during this time period.
One scenario that happened overnight was that when he was responding to a call, his ambulance got stuck because a road in front of a hospital wasn't plowed, and then "the following two units attempting to respond to the call, both FDNY ambulances, also got stuck. The only person to actually make it to the call was a FDNY EMS Lieutenant, who's vehicle ended up getting stuck in front of the call location."
WCBS 2's Marcia Kramer reports that the FDNY has a backlog of 1,300 911 calls and "there’s a 3-hour delay in response to critical cases, like heart attacks, and 12-hour delays for non-critical calls." The FDNY said that people should not call 911 with non-emergency situations (like "I have a cold and need a ride to the hospital"). Mayor Bloomberg said that people should call 311 with non-emergencies. He also basically suggested that calling a state of emergency might not have helped, since he did tell residents *not to drive* last night, but some did anyway.
Tagged
ambulance
blizzageddon
Blizzard
blizzard 2010
emergency
EMS
fdny
snow
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Central Park birders, others remember 63-year-old woman killed in park
People who said they knew her described her as an artist and a familiar presence in the Ramble.
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. ET
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
News
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .