The US northeast began to clean up after two blizzards in a week brought the region to a standstill with record snowfalls, leaving thousands without power and creating a multimillion-dollar mess.
From Washington to Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, cities largely ground to a halt with governments shut down, public transport scaled back, thousands of flights canceled and some highways closed as snow and powerful winds created whiteout conditions.
The National Weather Service said Washington’s winter snowfall broke a 110-year-old record with Wednesday’s blizzard setting a new mark of 54.9 inches (139.4cm). Baltimore also set a seasonal record and news reports indicated Philadelphia did, too.
As the storm ebbed away into the Atlantic early yesterday, local authorities urged residents to say at home and warned of treacherous driving conditions while plows redoubled their efforts to clear the roads and streets.
Emergency crews trying to restore power to tens of thousands of customers were hampered by strong winds.
Federal government agencies in the Washington area were ordered to remain closed yesterday for a fourth straight day, a move that costs an estimated US$100 million per day in lost productivity.
The UN in New York was closed on Wednesday, but Wall Street and many other businesses plowed on, and one brokerage house, JP Morgan Chase, offered cots in conference rooms for workers if they got stuck at the office.
Drivers were warned to stay off roads as the snow caused accidents and highway closures. Local media reported multi-car accidents in both Pennsylvania and Virginia.
“What we’ve seen today are whiteout conditions, blizzard conditions,” Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley told PBS NewsHour.
“Travel on our highways has been very treacherous,” he added. “We’ve had a number of building collapses and we’ve seen more snowfall in the last 72-hour period than we’ve ever seen in the 130-year recorded history of these sorts of snow and weather events in our state.”
Thousands of flights were canceled, and airlines relaxed ticket policies to allow passengers to change their plans without penalty, moves that could cloud the outlook for an industry already hard hit by the battered economy.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the blizzard cost taxpayers US$1 million for each inch (2.54cm) that fell. O’Malley said he was hoping for a federal disaster declaration to help ease the financial burden.
Authorities expect between 20.3cm and 30.5cm accumulation in New York, or less than the 30.5cm to 45.8cm that forecasters had been predicting earlier.
Bloomberg said schools would open yesterday, after Wednesday’s snow day, which was only the third in New York in eight years.
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