Within weeks from a blizzard that hit New York City halting travel, city Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared a weather emergency from Tuesday evening through Wednesday afternoon in many parts of the region after a storm arrived in New York on Tuesday evening.

According to the National Weather Service of the United States, the season’s major snowstorm is expected to dump as much as 12 inches of snow on New York City through Wednesday, which means the day would witness more flight cancelations.

“Most domestic flights at John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty airports are cancelled through early afternoon Wednesday,” Ron Marsico, spokesperson for The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was quoted as saying in media.

Delta Air Lines has canceled about 800 flights scheduled for Wednesday, said media reports. Its 1,700 Delta and Delta Connection flights for Tuesday were also canceled.

According to AirTran Airways, the airline has canceled over 50 flights for Wednesday, and more than about 260 flights were canceled for Tuesday.

American Airlines spokesperson Tim Smith said the airline canceled roughly 335 flights into and out of the three major New York airports for Wednesday. Boston Logan International Airport said in a facebook message that the average delays to JFK Airport are 168 minutes, 86 minutes to EWR and 60 minutes to LGA.

Meanwhile New York mayor Michael Bloomberg warned commuters, motorists and travelers to avoid driving as any hindrance from vehicles in plowing street would compel authorities to remove the vehicles. The storm is predicted to be at its heaviest just a few hours before rush hour and there's no ways that our city's plows can get to all 6,000 streets in one or two hours, he said.

According to National Weather Service officials, this is the third snowstorm in three weeks and weather conditions are likely to persist for some time. The regions expected to receive up to 16 inches snowfall include New England and New Jersey.

Watchdogs foresee this storm as a challenge for Bloomberg who has been criticized for slow cleanup work after the blizzard last month, and for not declaring snow emergency ahead of the storm that paralyzed the city on a Christmas weekend, which is one of the busiest days of travel, stranding travelers on airports when they were flying home for Christmas.

I'd rather be on the ground wishing I was in the air than in the air wishing I were on the ground, a US passenger said responding to the havoc blizzard created for travelers.

According to New York City Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty, the city is ready for handling storm now as more than 300 salt spreaders and 1,700 plows are ready for street-plowing and about 200 clearing equipments have been hired.

We recognize that we did not do the job that New Yorkers rightly expect of us in the last storm. We intend to make sure that does not happen again, Bloomberg said in a media conference.

While travelers are concerned about the disruptions in their journey, locals were seen sarcasting on twitter over New York public schools being opened on Wednesday.

So NYC schools are open but the MTA is suggesting that New Yorkers stay home? Just another example of how NY officials aren't on the same page, said a twitter update.

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