Storm extends weekend
NEW YORK — 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.
For many, the weekend extended into today because of closed schools and government offices. Officials were cautioning against unnecessary driving, even as they expected some commuter trains to be delayed or canceled.
The storm dropped snow from the Gulf Coast to New England, with near-record snowfalls tallied from Washington, D.C., to New York City. At least 31 people have died as a result of the snowstorm. The deaths occurred in car accidents, from carbon monoxide poisoning, and from heart attacks while shoveling snow.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin was on a rescheduled pre-dawn flight from Springfield, Ill., to Chicago while on the way to Washington this morning. The Illinois Democrat said he’s not even sure he’ll be able to get to D.C. today, but he’s been through this before.
“Most of us who spend part of our lives in Washington know to expect the worst when it comes to snow,” he said. “I knew the forecast was enough to cause a problem.”
At Philadelphia’s 30th Street station, Amtrak passengers juggled their travel plans and weathered any weather-related delays.
Pat Dougherty, a project manager for a construction management company, said he commutes daily to New York City from his home in suburban Philadelphia. He has never seen the line to board a train so long, because there were so many cancellations earlier. His 5:50 a.m. train today had been canceled and he was waiting to board a later train.
“On days like this, it’s normal for everything to be screwed up,” Dougherty said.
Larry Davis was spending his birthday getting from Wilmington, Del., to Providence, R.I., where he works in sales and marketing for a luxury brand. His flight was canceled so he took his rental car to the airport and took SEPTA to the train station.
“It was beautiful. Hopefully my trains will be on time,” Davis said. “I’ve done this commute for 10 years and every 25th flight or so goes wrong.”
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.
Sunday’s brilliant sunshine and gently rising temperatures provided a respite from the blizzard that 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 one day of sunshine wasn’t enough to clear many roads. Cars parked in neighborhoods 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 fell in Central Park.
Federal offices will be closed today, and Virginia’s state workers were told to stay home. Schools from Washington to the Jersey Shore gave students today off. In the D.C. suburbs, classes also were canceled for Tuesday.
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 today.
