After wild winter weekend, a difficult commute awaits

Associated Press

NEW YORK

After a weekend of sledding, snowboarding and staying put, the blizzard-blanketed Eastern U.S. will confront a commute today slowed by slick roads, damaged transit lines and endless mounds of snow.

Authorities cautioned against unnecessary driving, airline schedules were in disarray and commuter trains will be delayed or cancelled for many as the work week begins after a storm that dumped near record snows on the densely populated Washington, D.C.-to-New-York-City corridor.

The last flakes fell just before midnight Saturday, but crews raced the clock all day Sunday to clear streets and sidewalks devoid of their usual bustle.

Ice chunks plunging from the roofs of tall buildings menaced people who ventured out in Philadelphia and New York.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio encouraged people to leave their plowed-in cars covered with snow all week after a 1-day record of 26.6 inches fell in Central Park.

Sunday’s brilliant sunshine and gently rising temperatures provided a respite from the blizzard that paralyzed Washington and dropped a record 29.2 inches on Baltimore. The weekend timing could not have been better, enabling many to enjoy a gorgeous winter day.

It was just right for a huge snowball fight in Baltimore, where more than 600 people responded to organizer Aaron Brazell’s invite on Facebook.

But treacherous conditions remained as people recovered from a storm that dropped snow from the Gulf Coast to New England. At least 29 deaths were blamed on the weather, with shoveling snow and breathing carbon monoxide collectively claiming almost as many lives as car crashes.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike reopened Sunday afternoon near Pittsburgh after more than 500 cars, trucks and buses – some carrying the Duquesne University men’s basketball team and the Temple University women’s gymnastics squad – got stuck Friday night. The huge backup happened after trucks couldn’t climb through the mountains toward the Allegheny tunnels in what would become 35 inches of snow.