Travel bans lifted after blizzards shut down New York, US northeast
Blanket driving bans lifted and limited New York public transport services were scheduled to reopen after a night of snowfall that dumped up to 60 centimetres in some areas of northeast US
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 27 January, 2015, 5:03pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 27 January, 2015, 10:15pm
Reuters and Agence France-Presse in New York k
Residents of the Queens borough of New York wake up to snowfall. Photo: AP
Blanket driving bans were lifted and limited New York public transport was to reopen on Tuesday after a night of snowfall that dumped up to 60 centimetres in some areas.
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said travel bans would be lifted at 8am local time and that limited service on the New York city rail and subway lines would begin at 9am.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie also announced that the travel ban in the state was lifting, but officials still warned against all but essential travel.
“The roads are still dangerous and they are passable but there’s a level of ice under the snow in many areas and if you don’t have to travel today, you really don’t want to,” Cuomo said.
“I would expect delays, even with the ploughs and the salting, the roads are not clear so we don’t want to give people a false sense of security,” he added.
By noon, subway and rail services would run at a limited Sunday service, around 50 per cent of normal weekday operations, and back to normal on Wednesday, chairman Thomas Prendergast said.
Snowfall varied throughout the New York area, with some parts of the city receiving as little as 10 centimetres, and LaGuardia airport 25cm, Cuomo said.
Long Island Railroad trains sit parked as a maintenance machine works on the Port Washington track line in New York. Photo: AFP
Long Island is still being hard hit with 40cm of snow and its eastern tip Suffolk County continues to see blizzard-like conditions and face “serious issues,” Cuomo said.
Flight disruptions are still extensive. More than 5,000 flights within, to and from the United States are cancelled on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to flightaware.com.
Officials launched a vigorous defence of the blanket travel bans and rail closures, saying it had been prudent to protect lives, protect equipment and get services back to normal more quickly.
“You plan the best you can and you lead toward safety,” Cuomo said, adding that he had no estimates for loss of business.
“It may actually have brought us back to full operating capacity sooner but I do not criticise weather forecasters. I learn.”
The National Weather Service earlier warned of a “life-threatening blizzard” that could dump as much as 76 centimetres of snow on parts of the region and winds might gust up to 80km/h around New York.
The National Weather Service in New York said roughly 12cm of snow had fallen in the Manhattan’s Central Park by early on Tuesday and nearly 22cm were recorded on parts of Long Island. NWS officials in Boston reported early on Tuesday wind gusting up to 110km/h at Nantucket Memorial Airport.
“Please stay home,” New Jersey Governor Chris Christie told residents, ordering all but the most essential government workers in his state home from Monday afternoon until Wednesday at the earliest.
A restaurant worker clears his car of snow to return home ahead of a statewide travel ban in New Haven, Connecticut. Photo: Reuters
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday banned travel from 11pm for all but emergency vehicles on roads in 13 counties, including New York City, suburban Westchester and Long Island, with the threat of a US$300 fine for violators.
“If you are in your car and you are on any road, town, village, city, it doesn’t matter, after 11 o’clock, you will technically be committing a crime,” Cuomo said. “It could be a matter of life and death so caution is required.”
Additional driving bans in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey brought travel across the region to a standstill amid near white-out conditions.
A man stands in falling snow on West 42nd Street in Times Square. Photo: Reuters
The United Nations headquarters gave itself a day off on Tuesday. East Coast schools, including New York City – the nation’s largest public school system, serving one million students – shut down. Universities, including Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, canceled classes.
Stock exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq said they expected to stay open for normal operating hours on Tuesday.
The last time foul weather closed the stock markets was in October 2012 when Sandy hit the east coast with flooding, punishing winds and widespread power outages.
A Long Island train at Port Washington station. Photo: Reuters
The latest storm posed a fresh challenge to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, under fire from police who criticised his support of public protests about white police violence against black men. He was vilified for keeping schools open in the last major storm.
Vacationers and business travelers faced headaches as airlines canceled around 3,000 US flights, with Boston and New York airports most heavily affected, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware.
New York authorities said “virtually all” flights at LaGuardia Airport on Tuesday would be canceled and cancellations at John F. Kennedy International Airport would be “significant.”
A lonely commuter waits to catch the last train at a subway station in New York. Photo: AFP
Coastal flood warnings were issued from Delaware to Maine, with tides in the New York metro area expected to be as much as a metre higher than normal early on Tuesday morning.
Amtrak suspended rail service on Tuesday between New York and Boston, and into New York state, Vermont, Massachusetts and Maine.
The biggest snowfall on record in New York City came during the storm of February 2006, dropping 68 centimetres, according to the city’s Office of Emergency Management.
