Monstrous blizzard grips East Coast

December 28, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Photo by: Craig Ruttle

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo

John Elliot of New York tries to dig out his rental car on a Manhattan street Monday, Dec. 27, 2010, thanks in part to a good samaritan who let him use a shovel, in the wake of a major snow storm that hammered New York and much of the Northeast.

Los Angeles Times

NEW YORK

Much of the East Coast struggled to dig out Monday from a ferocious two-day blizzard that buried airports, froze trains and subways, downed power lines and stranded hundreds of thousands of travelers during one of the year’s busiest travel periods.

Howling winds and driving snow in areas from North Carolina to Maine forced the cancellation of more than 5,000 flights, crippling air travel across the nation. Officials said they may not unravel the colossal mess until Friday, the start of another holiday weekend.

The fierce storm left hundreds of cities and towns, highways and bridges, all but paralyzed under a shroud of icy white.

With heavy drifts blocking the tracks, Amtrak suspended rail services from New York to Maine, although limited service was restored Monday afternoon. Service also was canceled on New York’s Long Island Rail Road and on other regional commuter lines. Greyhound and other bus companies canceled many routes.

Six states — Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia — declared states of emergency to clear snow-clogged roads, restore electric power, and regain some sense of normalcy as the nor’easter roared out to sea and into the record books. Clear skies and warmer weather is predicted for the new few days.

The blizzard blanketed New York City beneath nearly 2 feet of snow, and gusting winds clocked at nearly 60 mph brought much of the city that never sleeps to a shuddering halt.

Side streets and some major roads in Manhattan and outer boroughs were still impassable at midday Monday, stunning New Yorkers long used to a fast-moving army of snow plows.

Abandoned cars, taxis and even a few police cars blocked parts of the upper-crust Upper West Side. In Brooklyn, cross-country skiers happily glided down the middle of a major thoroughfare as children played in the deep snow.

The region’s three major airports — John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty International — were closed all day although limited service was expected to resume by nightfall. Thousands of tired, hungry and frustrated passengers camped out on benches and floors, crowding overused restrooms and lining up at snack shops.

Ambulances, fire trucks and other emergency services struggled to keep going as the storm raged.

At one point, officials said, New York’s five boroughs struggled to meet a backlog of 1,300 pleas for help.

Even the New York subways, famed workhorses of the city’s transportation system, took a shellacking. Most subway lines suffered severe delays, and the No. 7 line that links Manhattan to working-class Queens was still silent at mid-afternoon.

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Several hundred people were trapped when a subway train on the A line, which goes to JFK airport, stalled just before 1 a.m. after leaving the above-ground Aqueduct station. With snow blocking the rail that provides power to the train, the heating failed. A diesel-powered locomotive could not reach the train and tow it to safety until nearly 8 a.m.

“It sat there for seven hours as cold, hungry, tired passengers watched the blizzard rage outside and, eventually, the sun rise over Queens,” one passenger wrote in the Daily News after the rescue.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the city’s subways, buses and trains, urged New Yorkers to stay indoors.

“Due to the ongoing conditions caused by the blizzard, including high winds, major snow drifts and some streets that are still difficult for buses to navigate, the MTA is urging its customers to stay home if at all possible,” the authority said Monday afternoon.

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Bleary-eyed travelers camped out in every corner of New York City’s main train depot, Pennsylvania Station. Screens warned that “high winds and drifting snow are making the effort to clear tracks and switches very challenging.”

The news did not reassure Annabelle Estrada. She and her two daughters flew to New York from Arizona to celebrate Christmas. They learned Sunday night that their flight back to Phoenix had been canceled, and they couldn’t rebook until next Saturday. So they came to Penn Station hoping to find a train.

Estrada and her daughters spent Sunday night sleeping on the train station floor, using their bags as pillows. At 4 p.m. Monday, they still didn’t know when they could leave.

“We’ve gotten bumped after bumped after bumped,” she said. “Three girls alone in the city. It’s very scary.”

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Maria Crespo had come from Long Island with her brother and her two sons on Sunday night for a WWE wrestling event at Madison Square Garden, the adjoining arena. When they went to board their train home after the event, however, they learned that everything had been canceled.

The Long Island Rail Road brought trains into the station for stranded passengers to sleep on, but Crespo said it was not pleasant.

“I didn’t get more than three hours of sleep,” said Crespo, 33. “I’m looking forward to brushing my teeth and taking a shower.”

“I’m never getting on a train again,” added her son.

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Appearing at a news conference, Mayor Michael Bloomberg blamed high winds for creating huge drifts that impeded the city’s usually ubiquitous snow plows and salting trucks. In some cases, he said, snow-bound work crews were unable to reach yards where equipment is stored.

“It’s being handled by the best professionals in the business,” Bloomberg said. “It’s a snowstorm, and it really is inconvenient for a lot of people.”

The mayor pleaded with people to stay off the roads “unless you absolutely have to.”

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Chris Mendez set out from his Brooklyn office at 8 a.m. to make house calls for people with broken heating systems. Seven hours later, he had gone a mile and was stuck at an intersection along with an ambulance, two city plows and 10 other passenger cars.

“I’ve had to stop every block to shovel my van out — and 10 feet on I get stuck again,” said Mendez, 27. “I never went through anything like this before.”

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In Boston, Gov. Deval Patrick warned that the storm was expected “to produce widespread heavy snowfall, periods of zero visibility, high winds, power outages, coastal flooding and beach erosion.”

Roads and highways around Boston appeared nearly deserted early Monday as many offices and stores closed for the storm, or workers were given the day off.

Gale force winds downed trees or power lines in many areas. Utilities reported about 30,000 homes and businesses lost power in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

The storm blew past Washington, D.C., leaving only a light dusting. The federal government operated on a normal schedule, but many offices were half empty as government workers stuck far from home reported in by e-mail or cell phone.

The storm dumped 2 feet of snow in Newark, and a foot of snow at Philadelphia International Airport. Victoria Lupica, the airport spokeswoman, said 1,200 passengers were stranded overnight.

The National Weather Service said a “full-blown blizzard” hit the New York City area and southern New England. Parts of New Jersey disappeared under 29 inches of snow, and wind gusts up to 80 mph ripped coastal Massachusetts.

Heavy snow fell on several southern states, with more than 13 inches falling on Norfolk, Va. Some areas in Georgia and South Carolina also received record snowfalls.

The storm hit North Carolina early Sunday and then roared up the coastline.

The ripple effects of the monster storm created havoc for travelers and businesses across the country.

In Los Angeles, major airlines canceled at least 19 flights headed from Los Angeles International Airport to the Northeast. United, American, Delta, JetBlue and Virgin America all canceled early-morning flights to New York, Philadelphia and Boston area airports, LAX spokesman Harold Johnson said.

In Chicago, more than 200 flights were canceled at O’Hare International airport, and another 25 were scrubbed at Midway International airport, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.

Despite the upheaval, many travelers took the delays in stride.

“I was meant for a longer vacation,” said Glenn Sabatino, 28, of New Jersey.

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(Popper reported from New York and Drogin reported from Silver Spring, Md. Staff writers Tony Barboza in Los Angeles, Geraldine Baum in New York, Nicholas Riccardi in Denver and Chicago Tribune reporter Becky Schlikerman contributed to this report.)

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Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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PHOTOS (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): WEA-WINTERWEATHER