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Icy roads, spotty transit service follow East Coast blizzard

January 25, 2016   by Michael R. Sisak and Verena Dobnik - THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


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NEW YORK – U.S. East Coast residents who made the most of a paralyzing weekend blizzard face fresh challenges as the workweek begins: slippery roads, spotty transit service and mounds of snow that buried cars and blocked sidewalk entrances.

A skier makes her way down a street near downtown Richmond, Va., Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016. A massive winter storm buried much of the U.S. East Coast in a foot or more of snow by Saturday, shutting down transit in major cities, stranding drivers on snowbound highways, knocking out power to tens of thousands of people. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

For many, the weekend extends into Monday because of closed schools and government offices. Officials were cautioning against unnecessary driving, even as they expected some commuter trains to be delayed or cancelled.

The storm dropped snow from the Gulf Coast to New England in the northeastern U.S., with near-record snowfalls tallied from Washington, D.C. to New York City. At least 30 deaths were blamed on the weather, with shovelling snow and breathing carbon monoxide together claiming almost as many lives as car crashes.

Flying remained particularly messy after nearly 12,000 weekend flights were cancelled. Airports resumed limited service in New York City, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, which said it got an entire winter’s snow in two days. Washington-area airports remained closed Sunday after the punishing blizzard.

Major airlines also cancelled hundreds of flights for Monday. Along with clearing snow and ice from facilities and equipment, the operators of airlines, train and transit systems had to figure out how to get snowbound employees to work.

Amtrak operated a reduced number of trains on all its routes, serving many people who couldn’t get around otherwise, spokesman Marc Magliari said. But bus and rail service was expected to be limited around the region into Monday.

The snow began Friday, and the last flakes fell just before midnight Saturday. In its aftermath, crews raced all day Sunday to clear streets and sidewalks devoid of their usual bustle.

But one day wasn’t enough to clear many roads.

Cars parked in neighbourhoods were encased in snow, some of it pushed from the streets by plows. In downtown Philadelphia, some sidewalk entrances were blocked by mounds of snow.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio encouraged people to leave their plowed-in cars all week after a one-day record of 26.6 inches (67.6 centimetres) fell in Central Park.

That advice came too late for Bob Raldiris, who tried shovelling his Nissan Maxima out of a spot in Ridgewood, Queens, before passing plows and trucks spoiled his labour. “This is terrible,” he said, pointing to a pile of snow three feet (1 metre) high.

Federal offices will be closed Monday, and Virginia’s state workers were told to stay home. Schools from Washington to the Jersey Shore gave students Monday off; In the D.C. suburbs, classes also were cancelled for Tuesday.

William Winston of Richmond digs his jeep out of a snow bank in Richmond, Va., Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016. Portions of Virginia are under a blizzard warning. A massive winter storm buried much of the U.S. East Coast in a foot or more of snow by Saturday, shutting down transit in major cities, stranding drivers on snowbound highways, knocking out power to tens of thousands of people. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

New York’s transit authority said partial service on the Long Island Rail Road was restored on three of its 12 branches and diesel train service was operating on three other branches. The problems were due to switches and tracks that were refrozen overnight due to low temperatures. New York City subways, buses and Metro-North Railroad service were operating on a normal schedule Monday.

Broadway reopened after going dark at the last minute during the snowstorm, but museums remained closed in Washington, and the House of Representatives postponed votes until February, citing the storm’s impact on travel.

In Washington, the official three-day total of 17.8 inches (45 centimetres) measured at Reagan National Airport was impossibly short of accumulations recorded elsewhere in the city. An official total of 22.4 inches (56.9 centimetres) landed at the National Zoo, for example.

The zoo remained closed through Monday but a video of its giant panda Tian Tian making snow angels got more than 48 million views. Joining the fun, Jeffrey Perez, of Millersville, Maryland, climbed into a panda suit and rolled around in the snow, snagging more than half a million views of his own.

Mother Nature was less deadly this time than human nature. A beloved Capitol policeman joined a grim list of people suffering heart attacks while shovelling snow. And a growing number of people died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

In Passaic, New Jersey, on Sunday, a mother and year-old son watching their family shovel snow from the apparent safety of their car died because snow blocked the tailpipe; her 3-year-old daughter was in critical condition. A man who tried to shovel out his car in Muhlenberg Township, Pennsylvania, met a similar fate after a snowplow buried him inside. And an elderly couple in Greenville, South Carolina, was poisoned by the generator in their garage after losing power.

Roofs collapsed on a Pennsylvania church, a Virginia theatre and a barn outside Frederick, Maryland, which got 33.5 inches (85 centimetres) of snow, killing some cows. Douglas Fink felt terrible about that: “I was trying to protect them, but they probably would have been better off just standing outside.”

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