Derry man caught up in NYC snow storm

Thirty-four year old Joseph Mahon, who lives in the Queens area of New York but works in a bar in Manhattan, wasn’t able to return home for more than 48 hours because of the heavy snowfall.

“I work in mid-town Manhattan near Madison Square Garden,” said Joseph.

“The bar I work in stayed open because a lot of the bartenders live nearby. Thankfully, my boss, Lizzie Nelis, paid for hotel rooms for staff who couldn’t get home because of the snow. I didn’t go back to Queens for two days. Transport and bridges to the other boroughs were completely shut down so it was nice of Lizzie to put us up in a hotel for the night,” he added.

Joseph, originally from the Culmore Road, said the snow was like nothing he had ever seen before.

“It was intense. When I got home a few days later, I couldn’t help but notice that Queens had been completely neglected. There were school buses and cars stuck in the heavy snow. The City cleaned up Manhattan but left the other boroughs to fend for themselves,” he said.

“The cars outside my apartment in Queens were engulfed with snow because the snowblowers cleared the streets and pushed the snow on top of them. It was crazy.”

The snow storm that engulfed much of the east coast of America resulted in the deaths of at least 42 people.

It’s believed that 85 million people were affected by Storm Jonas.

It is believed 26.8 inches of snow fell in New York making it the second highest amount since records began.