Pulling out snowblowers, residents in the north-eastern United States yesterday continued to battle the mounting piles of snow that left schools closed for a second day and stranded thousands of commuters. Snow in major metropolitan areas, such as New York and Boston, accumulated far less than originally predicted.
But the National Weather Service reported heavy snowfall in central New England and eastern New York, with 25 inches dumping on Paxton, Massachusetts, and as much as 18 inches in Burlington, Vermont, by yesterday morning.
"Some are winning the cause, and some aren't," Mr Al Rule, a snowplow dispatcher, told the National Weather Service from his office in New Hampshire, where more than 20 inches fell on Keene, in the south-eastern part of the state. "You go through with a plough, and 10 minutes later it's all covered again."
Possible flooding due to strong winds of more than 64 km per hour forced the evacuation of several communities on the eastern seaboard. A state of emergency in Massachusetts was extended indefinitely by Governor Paul Cellucci. His counterpart in New York, Governor George Pataki, also issued an alert for his state, to tap into federal funds for cities and communities.
"Shelters have been opened throughout the state and the region for people who might need to be evacuated," the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency said. "This is still a very, very serious storm. There could be blackouts in parts of the state."
Flights in and out of Boston's Logan International Airport were cancelled; so, too, were flights from Connecticut's Hartford Airport. Metropolitan New York's three airports, LaGuardia, Newark and John F. Kennedy, remained open.
There have been no reports of power cuts, which plagued snowbound residents during the blizzard of 1996.
The storm sideswiped the big cities, with just 3-6 inches blanketing New York City and 8-16 inches coating Boston. Washington was completely spared. New York City schools, closed on Monday for the first time in five years, reopened yesterday.
"New York is open for business," Mayor Giuliani said at a press conference in Manhattan's Emergency Centre. "We were ready for the worst, but it's good it didn't happen."
Meteorologists had predicted that the storm would be the worst since 1978, when some 100 people died in the north-east of the country and New York froze.
Nine people died as a result of snowstorms that have swept over Russia's Far Eastern island of Sakhalin since the weekend, and local officials said yesterday they feared the toll could be much higher. The island was cut off from mainland Russia on Monday, and many roads were hit by avalanches as snow-laden winds whipped in from the south.