Where Was Bloomberg During Blizzard? Bermuda Locals Weigh In

Mayor Bloomberg has been criticized recently for his response to the December snow storm that crippled New York. A recent Marist poll showed Bloomberg's approval ratings to be the worst of his tenure as mayor, in fact.

Yesterday's City Council hearings on the blizzard uncovered many of the mistakes the city could have prevented, but one question still remains -- where was the mayor when the storm hit?

His aides have been very hush-hush about his whereabouts, citing the longtime City Hall precedent of never talking about the mayor's private life. But this quietness has only created more speculation around the mystery.

Now the New York Times has potentially discovered where Bloomberg was at the time of the snow storm.

On the day after Christmas, a request came into the Bermuda airport: a private plane needed to be pulled out of its hangar and readied for takeoff.

The pilots seemed a bit anxious to depart. This did not strike airport employees as unusual: the owners of private aircraft are frequently in a rush.

But there was something memorable about this plane. Word had trickled out that its owner was Michael R. Bloomberg, said a person told of the conversations.

Bermuda residents say the mayor's plane arrived some after midnight on Christmas morning. The Times connects the dots of the mayor's schedule to create a sort of inverse theory of his whereabouts, though they are careful to mention that others besides the mayor, including his daughters, have access to his private plane.

The storm hit New York the morning of December 26th. Hours later, the pilots for Bloomberg's plane were told they were leaving Bermuda and heading back to the city. Bloomberg next appeared on television in New York City late that afternoon.

Read the article at their City Room blog.