BLAME CANADA!
Canuck wildfires plunge NYC into eerie, smoky hell
It’s the unhealthiest thing to come out of Canada since poutine. Smoke from fires up north gave New York the worst air quality in the world yesterday — and residents inhaled the equivalent of six cigarettes.
What the H-E-double hockey sticks?
Smoke from wildfires in Canada turned New York City into an apocalyptic hellscape of thick eerie fumes Wednesday — causing the worst air quality of any city in the world and the worst air in the Big Apple since the 1960s, including on 9/11.
The orange haze from the Great White North — where more than 400 wildfires were burning — got so bad that Mayor Adams urged New Yorkers to stay indoors and, if they had to go out, to don an N95 mask.
At the same time, the choking smoke proved it was the worst thing to come from Canada since Nickelback, hockey mullets and poutine by causing flight stoppages at La Guardia and Newark airports, closures at the city’s zoos and even the postponement of the evening Yankees game.
“This is something that has never impacted the city on this scale before,” Adams said at a press conference Wednesday.
“From the gloom over Yankee Stadium to the smoky haze obscuring the skyline . . . we could see it, we could smell it and we felt it.”
The city’s air quality index had spiked to 484 out of 500 by Wednesday afternoon as winds pushed smoke from 110 uncontained Quebec-area wildfires into the Big Apple, according to city officials. By contrast, an AQI of about 50 is normal in New York City during the month of June.
Its a “health concern that is clearly alarming for all New Yorkers,” Adams said. “This is the highest level of air quality index of our knowledge since the ‘60s.”
Historically hazy
The levels were far worse than the second-most polluted major world city, Delhi, India, which reached only 190 on Wednesday afternoon, according to the air quality site IQair.com.
The figures were worse than after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, although the present air debris was not as toxic, said Fox Weather meteorologist Brian Mastro.
“It looks like Mars out there,” he said, adding that the city was redolent of a giant campfire. “It smells bad, like the fire is right nearby.”
The smoke was being fueled by scores of wildfires in Canada, many of which were burning out of control. Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau’s office did not return a request for comment on what the nation was doing to battle the blaze.
The only good news in the midst of the tangerine-colored haze — which many compared to the look of various post-apocalyptic films — was that relief was expected to come soon. The smoke was expected to be lower Thursday, and lessen further Friday as rain comes, with an end to the conditions expected Sunday.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday afternoon, flights bound for La Guardia Airport in Queens were halted and landings at Newark Airport in New Jersey were delayed, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA issued the ground stop at La Guardia due to “reduced visibility” from the thick haze as it choked Gotham for the second day in a row, an FAA official told The Post.
The Bronx, Central Park, Queens and Prospect Park zoos each shuttered at 3 p.m. for the safety of guests and critters amid unhealthy air pollution levels, zoo officials said, with animals moved inside amid the air risk.
“We have been monitoring the rising air quality index & will close the WCS parks: Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, Queens Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, NY Aquarium, at 3pm today out of concern for our staff, visitors and animals,” the Bronx Zoo announced on Twitter.
The New York Aquarium and city beaches were also closed, while carriage-horse operators were asked to stop working.
The Yankees-White Sox game slated for Wednesday night in The Bronx was also postponed due to air-quality concerns and rescheduled as a doubleheader beginning at 4:05 p.m. on Thursday.
Sorry, kids, no recess
Earlier in the day, New York City public schools suspended outdoor activities along with an outdoor concert at Prospect Park’s bandshell Wednesday night due to the city’s “unprecedented air quality.”
Even alternate side parking was suspended Thursday “due to the air quality.”
Many New Yorkers masked up and refrained from exercising outdoors as health officials warned that even healthy New Yorkers should avoid the outdoors.
“This was for the pandemic but now I use it for air,” Tamari Zviadadze, 37, said of her face mask, as she pushed her patient in a wheelchair in Prospect Park.
“I rode my scooter yesterday. When I got home, my throat was like . . . I felt uncomfortable,” the home health aide said. “It’s not really safe for people. So today I decided to wear the mask.”
Others were unnerved by how the smoky haze darkened the sky and sent temperatures plunging.
“I was going to Central Park but because it’s so cold and foggy, I’m not going,” said Jamal Diab, 35, equity manager visiting from Denver, Colo. “I came out here to get a picture of the Statue of Liberty but I can’t even see it.”