New York City officials brace for extreme cold and icy conditions as road crews continue to keep the streets clear. Commissioner Zachary Iscol shares how the city is preparing for a frigid week ahead.
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00:00New York City still under a winter weather alert through today. What are your priorities during this alert?
00:05Yeah, so first off last night the bills got it done, but also our sanitation department got it done
00:11They did really great work plowing the streets salting every single road in the city, but we're still urging New Yorkers to
00:18To show some caution. We're looking for New Yorkers to help us with clearing sidewalks
00:23You know last night
00:24I got home very late after visiting a lot of the crews that were out and about
00:27First thing I did was grab a bag of salt and grab a shovel to clear the sidewalk in front of our building
00:32Asking New Yorkers to do the same
00:33We are concerned about icy conditions today and through this week with the cold weather and then now we're also shifting gears to start to
00:40Focus on that extreme cold weather that's coming into the city working with our utilities
00:43Working to make sure we're taking care of vulnerable populations working with our Department of Social Services to care for homeless
00:50New Yorkers, so a lot of work going into this week now as we get out of the snow
00:54Yeah, and those dangerous temperatures are gonna remain low into the low teens the next couple of days
00:58So could you go in depth a little bit more about how exactly the city will be helping helping those vulnerable populations during the cold spell?
01:06Yeah, so we do two primary things. We start working days in advance monitoring the forecast with the National Weather Service
01:12Really huge credit to you guys too for the work
01:14You do keeping people informed of the dangers and the low temps then we have we issue something called a code blue
01:20Which means we have additional outreach teams going around
01:23Bringing in homeless New Yorkers into warm shelters
01:26If you see somebody who needs help you can call 3-1-1 if it's an emergency call 9-1-1
01:31Then there's also a lot of work we do with our partners that handle the utilities or water or sewage
01:37To make sure that New Yorkers have heat hot water electricity steam
01:42Making sure that if we do lose
01:44Any of those utilities that we're responding immediately
01:48We have additional crews on standby that were able to address any impacts to critical care facilities nursing homes
01:54So a lot of work that goes into protecting our infrastructure and taking care of our most vulnerable this week
02:00Yeah, we've heard it from you that there's always a lot of cooperation among New York City agencies
02:04So, how do you coordinate and adjust the response as weather conditions change?
02:08Yeah, so we start days in advance start working with the National Weather Service
02:11We actually have an interagency call almost every single day
02:14We get the briefing and then we talk to every single one of the agencies looking at sort of what are the operational goals?
02:20What are the objectives for the week based on the forecast? What did the different agencies need? How are we responding?
02:27Do they have the right resources that they need to address things?
02:30and then a big part of this is also communicating to the public making sure the public is aware of the dangers making sure the
02:35Public is aware of the steps that they can take whether it's calling 3-1-1 to repeat
02:39The loss of heat or hot water in their building whether it's calling 9-1-1 for an emergency
02:45Whether it's calling 3-1-1 again to report somebody who's on the street who needs help
02:49So making sure New Yorkers are also aware that while the city is doing a lot
02:53There's a lot they can do to help out as well
02:55All right
02:56And with about 40 seconds left to go at the extreme cold between now and Wednesday
02:59What do you want people to remember about how serious these temperatures can be?
03:03These are serious. So bundled up help us out with looking for our most vulnerable
03:09Those are the two big things and if there's any issues, please report them to us that we can address them
03:14We appreciate you being with us Commissioner Iskall again out of New York City. Thanks again for your updates and keeping everyone safe
03:21Wonderful to be with you. Thanks so much