Paralyzing blizzard hits US Northeast, closing roads and canceling flights

A powerful blizzard dropped more than two-and-a-half feet of snow (76.2 cm) across parts of the US Northeast on Monday, bringing travel to a near-standstill for millions of residents as the treacherous conditions closed roads, shut down train services and forced the cancellation of some 7,400 flights.

Thousands of homes and businesses lost power and officials, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, urged residents to stay off the roads so emergency crews could clear the streets. Schools in New York and throughout the region were closed. Broadway shut its theaters.

“New York remains in a state of emergency,” Mamdani said. “The travel ban has ended today at noon, but a hazardous travel advisory remains in place through midnight tonight.”

More than 19 inches (48 cm) of snow had fallen on New York City’s Central Park by 1 p.m. ET (1800 GMT) on Monday and over 14 inches fell in Boston, said Bob Oravec, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center.

Winds, at times reaching between 40 to 60 mph (64-100 kph), blew snowdrifts several feet high.

“It’ll probably take a week to dig out,” Oravec said.

Philadelphia received 14 inches while Providence, Rhode Island, was buried under more than 32 inches of snow, a record for the city.

More than 608,711 homes and businesses across the US were without power as of Monday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us. That included one in 10 of the nearly 3 million power customers PowerOutage.us tracks in Massachusetts

Many were astounded by the depth of the snowfall. In her 20 years or so living in New Hyde Park, on hard-hit Long Island, Sandra Wu said she had never seen a winter storm this bad. Her family could not open the front door and could barely see out of some windows because of the high snowdrifts.

“My husband went out early through the garage to start digging us out, but it was pointless,” Wu said.

Wu, 53, a veterinarian, said the storm, which had dropped about 18 inches of snow, reminded her of the storms in the 1990s when she lived in Buffalo, New York, which gets an average annual snowfall of 92 inches.

Her two children, ages 13 and five, were thrilled to have a snow day off from school, so they slept in.

“We thought we’d lose power, thankfully not,” she said. “So we’re baking today. There’s nothing else to do while we wait for the snow to stop.”

REGIONAL EMERGENCIES

At least seven US states had declared states of emergency in response to the storm as of Monday.

Airlines had canceled more than 7,400 flights by Monday afternoon and delayed another 2,300, according to the tracking site FlightAware.com. That figure included more than 1,800 canceled Tuesday flights, according to the site. Most of the cancellations and delays were in the northeastern U.S., including New York’s John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports, Boston’s Logan Airport, and New Jersey’s 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 the closure of the UN headquarters complex in Manhattan on Monday.

The Department of Homeland Security said that despite its ongoing funding lapse the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster-response work would continue uninterrupted, including staff travel, emergency operations and critical assistance for people affected by active disasters.

Last week, Reuters reported 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.

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey declared an emergency and told state workers to stay home. Connecticut barred commercial vehicles from limited-access highways, exempting only emergency and essential deliveries.

Train and bus commuter lines in New Jersey were halted, while the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority said it would suspend all service through Monday and would announce plans to resume service only when conditions improve.

Even some ships were caught by the storm. Wu said her elderly in-laws were stuck on a cruise ship docked in New York Harbor, which cannot start sailing to the Bahamas on a planned vacation.

But Wu said they were enjoying themselves despite the delay.

“They are having the best time with 20 of their friends, eating well with plenty of entertainment,” while they wait for the storm to pass, Wu said.