Rajesh Kumar Singh and Rick McKay
A powerful blizzard dropped more than a foot of snow (30 centimetres) across parts of the US Northeast including New York City on Monday, bringing travel to a near standstill for millions of residents as the treacherous conditions closed roads, shut down train service and forced the cancellation of some 5700 flights.
Thousands of homes and businesses were without power and officials, including NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, ordered residents to stay off the roads so emergency crews could clear the streets. Many schools were closed throughout the region.
“I’m urging every New Yorker to please stay home,” Mamdani said.
More than 15 inches (38 centimetres) of snow had fallen on New York City’s Central Park by 8am on Monday and another 5-6 more inches (13-15 centimetres) were expected to fall before the storm tapered off by late afternoon, said Bob Oravec, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Centre.
Winds can blow snow drifts several feet high.
“It’s a pretty big storm, and it’s definitely a blizzard” with wind gusts of 40 mph to 60 mph (64 km/h to 96 km/h) from Delaware to New York City to Boston, Oravec said.
“It’ll probably take a week to dig out.”
Boston has received about 6 inches so far, but much of Delaware and Southern New England has already received 12 to 18 inches, and Philadelphia has already received a foot of snow.
The storm is expected to taper off in New York City by Monday afternoon but Boston and upper New England will see snow through Monday night.
Because of the high winds, the snow storm meets blizzard criteria: Blizzards have gusts of 35 mph (56 km/h) winds or greater, sustained over three hours or more, Oravec said. Stony Brook Village on Eastern Long Island and Nantucket Island had among the highest gusts reported, topping 60 mph (96 km/h).
Airlines had cancelled more than 5700 flights by Monday morning and delayed another 900, according to the tracking site FlightAware.com. More than 1600 Tuesday flights had already been cancelled, according to the site.
Most of the cancellations and delays were in the Northeastern US, including New York’s John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports, Boston’s Logan Airport, and Newark Liberty International Airport.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she had activated 100 National Guard members to assist in Long Island, New York City and the Lower Hudson Valley – areas expected to bear the brunt of the heavy snow and coastal winds.
The storm forced closure of the UN headquarters complex in Manhattan on Monday.
Parts of the Northeast could see up to two feet of snow and wind gusts could reach 70 mph (112 km/h), raising the risk of falling trees and power outages, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
In an update on Sunday, the agency said that despite its ongoing funding lapse, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster-response work continues uninterrupted, including staff
travel, emergency operations and critical assistance for people affected by active disasters, with life safety and property protection remaining top priorities.
Last week, Reuters reported that the Trump administration had ordered FEMA to suspend the deployment of hundreds of aid workers to disaster-affected areas around the country while the DHS is shut down.
Reuters
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