Slipping, Sliding and Watching for Falling Ice

Just when New Yorkers thought they had seen it all this winter, along came a new cause for alarm on Wednesday: ice, a danger on the ground and from above.

In brick-shape chunks, not-so-little thunderbolts and snowball-size clumps, ice slammed down on streets and avenues in the city. Pieces of ice came loose from buildings tall and small. They propelled themselves from the cables on bridges; the Verrazano-Narrows and George Washington Bridges were closed for part of the morning because of ice showers.

“It’s happening everywhere,” Daniela Talero, 23, said as she walked through Columbus Circle. Just then, a chunk of ice a foot in diameter crashed about six feet away, splintering into pieces.

Ice sheets the size of dinner plates slid off the Bank of America building at 42nd Street and Avenue of the Americas, a sleek glass tower whose top disappeared in fog. Chunks crashed against nearby buildings.

Predictions of an ice storm had many people prepared for treacherous conditions on roads and sidewalks. Those who strayed too close to buildings defended themselves with whatever shields they could — umbrellas, purses, even just an arm crooked over a head.

“It’s falling from here, over there; it’s falling from everywhere,” said a traffic agent caught in an intersection during a particularly heavy ice shower in Midtown. She squealed and laughed, spinning to avoid the ice.

But the ice was not to be avoided. A large kite-size chunk caromed off her back, splattering on the pavement.

Icicles clung, barely, to ledges and pipes. Building managers put up barricades and yellow caution tape to channel pedestrians away from places where ice might hit them. Bryson Wyatt, 24, a Web designer, said he had noticed frozen snow on the side of Fraunces Tavern, where George Washington gave his farewell address to the officers of the Continental Army.

“It’s kind of getting to the point where it could snap off,” said Mr. Wyatt, who lives next door.

The city’s Buildings Department issued what it called a weather advisory that said building owners should “safely remove ice and snow from flat roofs, gutters and overhangs.” It also said owners had to clear public areas around their buildings.

But the department does not regulate trees, and trees, or precisely, one tree on the Upper West Side, was why Amelia Priddis’s hair was wet and her coat was covered in droplets.

“I was walking underneath a tree, and bits of ice chunks were falling,” said Ms. Priddis, an advertising account manager from London who was on vacation in New York. “You can’t dodge it. You just have to hope it doesn’t hit you hard.” She was not carrying an umbrella, she said, because that is not what New Yorkers do, or so she thought — they grin and bear it.

The messy mix — falling ice, slippery sidewalks and huge puddles at street corners — was an unhappy byproduct of something that, under other circumstances, New Yorkers would be happy about: warmer temperatures. By midafternoon Wednesday, it was a degree or two above freezing.

The National Weather Service said the storm was moving on and Thursday would be sunny. But the Weather Service said another storm was bearing down on the New York area, threatening another round of snow and sleet on Saturday morning, rain that afternoon and more snow that evening.

But on Wednesday, there were more immediate concerns than the next storm. On 41st Street near Eighth Avenue, where ice was tumbling from The New York Times Building, people scurried east in the middle of the westbound street, dodging cabs. Jerome Sesquin, 36, a filmmaker from France, kept his head cocked toward the sky, despite his furry hooded parka, as he scooted around the corner.

“I was thinking of the movie with the frogs falling from the, uh, how you say — ciel — sky,” Mr. Sesquin said, trying to remember the name of the film. “By P. T. Anderson. ‘Magnolia’!”

Guy Juravich was standing under an overhang, killing time after the bus he had expected to board at the Port Authority Bus Terminal across Eighth Avenue was canceled. Suddenly, a piece of ice fell through a gap in the overhang and ricocheted off the coffee cup his brother, Nick, 27, was holding.

Ice bounced off the umbrella of Anibal Barrios, 51, a bakery employee, who reacted by walking a little faster.

“I like the protection,” Mr. Barrios said. “Usually I carry my umbrella because sometimes it’s terrible. The ice falls on my head. Oh, it’s terrible.”

The Weather Service said 1.6 inches of snow had fallen in Central Park since Tuesday, and the weight was a problem.

In Far Rockaway, Queens, the roof of a vacant building fell in. On Long Island, where, the Weather Service said, less than half an inch fell overnight, the canopy outside a gas station in Westbury collapsed. In Syosset, the roof of a house under construction partly gave way. No one was hurt in either episode, The Associated Press reported.

And in Middletown, Conn., the third floor of a building collapsed, showering the street with bricks. The A.P. quoted an acting fire marshal, Al Santostefano, as saying that two workers got out just in time. “It’s like a bomb scene,” he said.