Thirty-seven people have been confirmed dead as of Monday after the hurricane-force blizzard dubbed “Snowzilla” crippled the US East Coast.
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This weekend’s massive winter storm is now the second largest in New York City’s history.
The system was mammoth, dropping snow from the Gulf Coast to New England. The snow finally stopped falling in New York City around 10 p.m. Saturday night, though authorities insisted people stay indoors and off the streets as crews plowed deserted roads and police set up checkpoints to catch violators.
In Pennsylvania, an 8-months pregnant teen was among those who died shoveling snow over the weekend, her family said, while a man who tried to dig out his auto in Muhlenberg Township was buried by a snowplow. And Bruce Springsteen canceled Sunday’s scheduled show at Madison Square Garden. But museums in the nation’s capital remained closed, and the House of Representatives postponed votes until February due to the storm’s impact on travel.
Almost 3 500 domestic and global flights were canceled on Sunday, FlightAware said, adding to a growing backlog caused by major airports in New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore all grinding to a halt. The limited amount of service mainly impacted trains along its Northeast corridor, including Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston.
Spokesman Marc Magliari said Sunday afternoon that the number of passengers was down from usual, but appeared to include many travelers who couldn’t get around on other transportation modes.
New York City subways, buses and Metro-North Railroad service were operating on a normal schedule Monday, though the city’s transit authority could provide only partial service on the Long Island Rail Road because of switches and tracks that were frozen overnight.
Federal government buildings and public schools in Washington, D.C., were closed on Monday, as were state offices in Virginia and Maryland.
The Zoo was making hearts sing in other ways – even though the grounds remained closed through Monday, an online video of its giant panda Tian Tian romping in the snow and making what looked like snow angels got more than 48 million views.
In the NY suburb of Passaic, a woman and her one-year-old son died of carbon monoxide poisoning while waiting in their vehicle as their husband cleared the drive. “People want to start to go outside and start shoveling and clearing their walks and driveways”, said New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican presidential contender who left the campaign trail to oversee the emergency response in his state. “There’s going to have to be major renovations”, Rosenello said. Cape May, Stone Harbor and Ocean City saw record flooding. And an elderly couple in Greenville, South Carolina, was poisoned by the generator in their garage after losing power.
High winds battered the entire East Coast, from North Carolina to NY, reaching 70 miles per hour (112.5 km) in Wallops Island, Virginia, late on Friday, whipping up the tides and causing coastal flooding, said National Weather Service meteorologist Greg Gallina.
The majority of the deaths that occurred during the storm were on icy roads.
A Maryland farmer who thought he was protecting his cows from the elements by moving them inside lost part of his herd when the structure’s roof gave way.
“The snow pile is going to be with us for a while, but I think we’ll be in good shape in the next 24 hours”, de Blasio said. Douglas Fink felt awful about that: “I was trying to protect them, but they probably would have been better off just standing outside”.
Nuckols reported from Burke, Virginia.
It struck hardest in NY and the Baltimore and Washington area – two cities that are not accustomed to violent winter storms.
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This story has been corrected to delete references to single-day record for Washington, where the 22.4 inches at the zoo was total, not single-day accumulation.
