A blizzard swept across the northeastern United States on Tuesday, dropping more than 30 centimetres of snow across Massachusetts and Connecticut even as its impact on New York City fell short of dire predictions.
The governors of New York and New Jersey lifted travel bans they had imposed a day earlier and New York City's subway system was set to restart, though officials urged people who did not have to drive to stay off snow-covered roadways.
A blizzard warning remained in effect for much of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, where snow was expected to go on falling through the day at a rate as high as five to eight centimeters an hour, even as the National Weather Service lifted its blizzard warning for the New York City area.
Fewer Massachusetts residents and businesses lost power than was expected, said Gov. Charlie Baker, saying that temperatures well below freezing had resulted in light snow. High winds could yet result in additional outages, he said.
"We'll continue to see high winds throughout the course of the day," Baker told reporters on Tuesday. "People should spend the morning digging out, cleaning up."
In Washington, D.C., federal offices and city public schools were scheduled to open two hours late, to allow additional travel time.
Philadelphia and central New Jersey were spared the brunt of the storm and expected to get about 15 centimetres.
Some in New York criticized the aggressive warnings of officials including Mayor Bill de Blasio, who for the first time in history ordered the city's subway to close for a snowstorm. Officials with vivid memories of disasters including 2012's Superstorm Sandy defended their actions.
"We thought we were going to get something a lot bigger," New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told CNN. "We're going to quickly get back to normal here in New York City."
Some cab drivers in New York doubled fares and sought to pack additional passengers into their vehicles as office workers headed to their jobs.
More than 5,000 flights in and out of the Northeast scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday have been cancelled, in addition to the nearly 3,000 flights halted on Monday.
The National Weather Service over the weekend had issued a blizzard warning for a 400-kilometre swath of the region, meaning heavy, blowing snow and potential whiteout conditions.
Forecasts for as much as 90 centimetres of snow had prompted governors in eight East Coast states to declare states of emergency, affecting up to 60 million people in nearly a dozen states.
On Monday, schools and businesses let out early. Government offices closed. Shoppers stocking up on food jammed supermarkets and elbowed one another for what was left. Broadway stages went dark.
More than 35 million people along the Philadelphia-to-Boston corridor rushed to get home and settle in Monday as a fearsome storm swirled in with the potential of 60 centimetres of snow that could paralyze the Northeast for days. (Seth Wenig/Associated Press)
New Yorkers were divided on whether officials had over-reacted in ordering dramatic shutdowns ahead of the storm.
"The mayor might have blown it this time but he was probably just playing it safe," said Manny Martinez, 55, as he salted his driveway in New York's Brooklyn borough. Martinez said he was glad to find his shoveling work easier than he had expected, "This is what I was praying for, the white fluffy stuff."
Others were frustrated that de Blasio had preemptively shut the subway and ordered cabs off the roads.
"It's never as bad as they say it is going to be," said Greg Noble, 29, as he walked briskly to his maintenance job some 30 city blocks from his Manhattan home. "This made it a little difficult to go to my job. I usually take a taxi, but no taxis today."
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo defended the decisions, which had included a driving ban in New York City and its surrounding counties overnight.
"I would rather, if there is a lean one way or another, lean towards safety because I have seen the consequences the other way and it gets very frightening very quickly ... we have had people die in storms," Cuomo told reporters. "I would rather be in a situation where we say, 'We got lucky.'"
His New Jersey counterpart, Gov. Chris Christie, was less sanguine about the dire forecasts that preceded the storm.
"I wasn't thrilled on my 5:30 a.m. phone call, but it's the way it goes," Christie told Philadelphia's WTXF television.
The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for a huge swath of the U.S.'s Northeast corridor, from New Jersey up to Massachusetts, meaning potential white-out conditions as heavy snow swirls amid gusting wind
The weather service says a blizzard includes sustained or frequent wind gusts of 35 m.p.h. (56 km/h) or greater and considerable falling snow that lasts for at least three hours.
This storm is expected to last up to 36 hours in some locations, forecasters said. But another storm could be looming ahead of next weekend.
- February 2006: 68.3 cm
- December 1947: 65.5 cm
- March 1888: 53.3 cm
- February 2010: 53 cm
- January 1996: 51.3 cm
Source: U.S. National Weather Service
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