Airports shut, trains halted as blizzard locks down US east coast

A POWERFUL blizzard brought the east coast of the United States to a standstill yesterday, leaving thousands without a way to get home after Christmas and shutting down major airports, rail lines and making roads treacherous for a second day.

Across the east coast, more than 2,000 flights were cancelled. Buses were stranded on snowed-in highways and passengers in New York City spent a cold night stuck in an unheated subway train.

Officials urged anyone who did not have to drive to stay off roads in the region, where high winds pushed snow into deep drifts across streets, railroads and runways. More than 2ft of snow had fallen in some areas by yesterday morning.

In New Jersey, state troopers brought water and food to diabetics marooned on two buses carrying about 50 people on the Garden State Parkway, where stranded cars on ramps blocked access for snow ploughs and ambulances, police spokesman Steve Jones said.

One bus was freed by 7am local time and the other was expected to be out soon, he said.

In New York City, hundreds of cold, hungry and tired passengers were stranded overnight at John F Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty airports.

Officials said they were being provided with blankets and cots, but some would-be travellers were not allowed to retrieve their checked luggage, leaving them with no extra clothing or toiletries.

Not even New York City's subway system - usually the reliable workhorse during bad weather - could withstand the ferocity of the storm. Some subway passengers were stranded for hours on trains that broke down in Queens.

Hundreds of travellers were yesterday forced to sleep in Long Island Railroad train carriages frozen at the platform. Others lay like refugees at the entrance to the train link to Kennedy Airport and stood helpless at the ticket office, waiting in vain for good news to flash on the schedule screens.

Hours went by without a single train leaving with passengers.

Buses services were paralysed as well and the famous yellow taxis abandoned the streets. Those who tried walking out of the station were assailed by a hard, frigid wind that made snowflakes sting like needles.

A blizzard warning, which is issued when snow is accompanied by sustained winds or gusts over 35mph for three hours, was in effect early yesteday from Delaware to the far northern tip of Maine.

The storm was expected to bring its heaviest snowfall in the pre-dawn hours, sometimes dumping up to 4in an hour.A total of up to 16in was expected across nearly all of Rhode Island, Connecticut and eastern Massachusetts, although forecasters said winds of 50mph could create much deeper snow drifts.

Almost 30in of snow fell in Bergen County, New Jersey, by yesterday morning, and 20in was reported in New York City's Central Park.

States of emergency were declared in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Maine and Massachusetts, where governor Deval Patrick urged people who did not have to be on the roads to stay home, to ensure their safety and that of work crews. Non-essential state workers were told to stay home yesterday.

In Philadelphia, cab driver Farid Senoussaoui, 33, described navigating the slippery conditions as "like a video game".

Mr Senoussaoui had worked overnight during the storm and said passengers were universally grateful when he stopped to pick them up.

New England commuters appeared to be heeding the call to stay off the roads. In greater Boston, highways into the city were nearly abandoned early yesterday as many workers were given the day off and others were off work for the holiday week.

The blizzard-like conditions also wreaked havoc on travellers from the Carolinas to Maine.

Airlines scrambled to rebook passengers on thousands of canceled flights - more than 1,400 out of the New York City area's three major airports alone - but said they did not expect normal service to resume until later today.

The Manchester Boston Regional Airport in New Hampshire was almost deserted yesterday.

Amtrak cancelled train service from New York to Boston after doing the same earlier for several trains in Virginia.

Wind gusts of up to 80mph knocked out power to thousands. Power companies reported about 30,000 customers were out in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, mostly on Cape Cod and south of Boston.

In Wells, Maine, police say a 59-year-old man died several hours after his pickup crashed into a tree during whiteout conditions on Sunday night.

The mammoth storm is the result of a low pressure system off the North Carolina coast and strengthened as it moved north-east, the National Weather Service said. Because of it, parts of the South had their first white Christmas since records have been kept.