I think the early under response to Sandy (by Bloomberg) has emergency services spooked.
And again, predicting snowfall with these storms is very dodgy in the nj/nyc area. Even now.
I don’t think it’s so much emergency services as Cuomo’s and de Blasio’s political handlers who didn’t want to risk appearing to underrespond.
Still no good reason to shut the City down.
Per usual, the stock exchange wasn’t taken in by the hype and continued business as usual—even though many of their employees’ transportation was needlessly shut down by the state.