12 February 2006CBS News
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Brooklyn resident Nick Imelio shovels out. (AP photo/Kathy Willens) |
"This is a very dangerous, big storm," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
"Don't drive unless you have to. It is very dangerous on the roads," he said.
More than 500 flights were cancelled as three of New York's big airports were closed for most of the day, backing up passengers all over the U.S. They re-opened Sunday night.
FROM FEB. 12, 2006: Gander plays temporary host to diverted flyers
Fourteen North American-bound planes were diverted to Gander, N.L. on Sunday. As many as 2,000 passengers from eight passenger planes and six military and cargo planes spent several hours in the airport lounge.
The same storm system hit Nova Scotia, interrupting an unusually mild stretch of weather in Atlantic Canada, but Maritimers got off easily, compared with Americans.
RELATED STORY: Storm diverts flights to Gander
For New Yorkers, the snowfall beat the 67 centimetres which fell in two days after Christmas in 1947.
Other parts of the eastern U.S. got as much as 50 centimetres. The 53 centimetres that fell on an area west of Philadelphia matched the city's average for the whole winter.
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Maintenance workers clear the sidewalks of New York City. (AP photo) |
Thousands of people lost power in Maryland, northern Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey and parts of New York.
Thunder and lightning, too
Adding to the drama, the blizzard was accompanied by an unusual winter electrical storm.
"High winds drove stinging cold snowflakes into the streets at a rate of three inches an hour," the New York Times said, "while the sky cracked with thunder and lightning."
As thousands of city workers put in 12-hour shifts salting and plowing streets, the city's website offered temporary shovelling jobs at $10 US an hour to able-bodied applicants eligible to work in the United States.
