Millions of people in the north-eastern US were stuck at home on Monday as heavy snow and strong winds created whiteout conditions, grounding flights in the area and leaving hundreds of thousands without power.
By 7pm local time, close to 38in of snow had fallen at Rhode Island’s TF Green international airport, where all scheduled departing and arriving flights had been canceled through the day.
The blizzard smashed several snowfall records in the area, including the amount from a single snowstorm, set at 28.6in in 1978, according to the National Weather Service.
Snowfall totals in 21 cities and towns across New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts had reached at least 2ft, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). In some areas, that snow has been accompanied by strong wind gusts of over 30mph (48km/h) and low visibility.
The Massachusetts governor, Maura Healey, called Monday’s storm “a doozy” in an afternoon news conference, adding that it has been “serious and severe”.
“The snow is still coming down pretty hard and it will be for a while,” she said, urging locals to stay home while teams work to clear the roads. Healey added that wind gusts had reached hurricane-force levels, at up to 80mph in some places, and visibility had been close to zero.
“We haven’t seen a snowstorm quite like this – as intense – in at least four years,” she said.
Healey signed an executive order to implement a travel ban for non-essential vehicles in Bristol, Plymouth and Barnstable counties, noting that they were particularly affected areas by the storm.
As the winds and snow continue to batter the state, Healey said she had also asked neighboring states, such as Vermont and New York, for additional resources to support clearing efforts.
Blizzard warnings stretched from Maryland to Maine, affecting 40 million people. Cellphones across New York City received wailing push alerts on Sunday night announcing a ban on non-emergency travel on all streets through noon on Monday because of “dangerous blizzard conditions”. Rhode Island and New Jersey implemented similar restrictions.
The National Weather Service said the powerful storm would move away from New England on Monday evening, with snowfall rates expected to decrease below an inch per hour after sunset.
“The combination of lingering snowfall and strong winds will continue to produce blizzard conditions and blowing snow along the Northeastern Seaboard this evening,” forecasters wrote in an afternoon update. “Sharply reduced visibility will make travel extremely treacherous and nearly impossible at times across these areas into early Tuesday.”
New Jersey’s travel ban was lifted early on Monday afternoon, while Rhode Island will keep its in effect as heavy snow continues to affect the region into Monday evening.
At noon, Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed that New York’s travel ban had been lifted, but urged drivers to exercise caution if they decided to face the roads, asking New Yorkers to “exercise caution, travel slowly, and be mindful of others on the road”.
Almost 6,000 flights in and out of the US were canceledaccording to the flight tracking website FlightAware. Most were cancelled in New York, New Jersey and Boston.
Public transit was suspended in some areas. But it was still running in New York, albeit with delays and service changes. “Thousands of folks have been out yesterday and overnight to make sure that we could provide service today,” the chair of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), Janno Lieber, said in a local news interview.
“The service is a little less frequent and a little behind schedule on the subways, but it’s running on the whole system.”
Lieber said that cleaning and maintenance crews were focusing on elevated and outdoor tracks, where the most snow tends to accumulate.
The storm caused power outages that left almost 700,000 customers in the dark along the east coast late Monday morning, including about 130,000 customers without power in New Jersey, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide.
In Massachusetts, more than 272,000 residents were without power across the state on Monday night.
Emergencies had been declared in New York, Philadelphia and other cities, as well as several states stretching from Delaware to Massachusetts as officials mobilized readiness efforts.
Boston and New York cancelled public school classes for Monday.
“To kids across New York City, you have a very serious mission if you choose to accept it: stay cozy,” Mamdani said. The mayor announced on Monday afternoon that school would be in-person on Tuesday, to the chagrin of students throughout the city. “You can still pelt me with snowballs when you see me,” Mamdani said.
Most office workers across the north-east logged on to remote work on Monday morning, but employees at JPMorgan Chase’s New York headquarters were not afforded the same opportunity. A spokesperson said it would go forward with hosting an in-person event for investors at its office in midtown, as the New York Times reported.
The JP Morgan spokesperson noted that there would be a live stream on the company’s website for those who cannot attend, with the rest of the city largely at a standstill.
JPMorgan Chase’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, a fierce proponent of in-office work, will reportedly also be at the event.
Meanwhile, outreach workers worked to coax homeless New Yorkers off the street and into shelters and warming centers.
Mamdani said in an interview that New York City added more than 100 beds at a recently opened shelter in upper Manhattan, and urged New Yorkers to call 311 if they see a homeless New Yorker in need. The mayor’s handling of the winter storms has been under scrutiny, as at least 18 people have died from the unusually brutal cold snap that the city has faced.
Various landmarks and cultural institutions announced closures on Monday, from New York’s Museum of Modern Art to Arlington national cemetery in Washington. Broadway shows were cancelled on Sunday and Monday evening.
The NWS said the storm’s strong wind gusts could cause whiteout conditions. It also warned of a “potentially historic/destructive storm” south-east of the Boston-Providence corridor.
“Winds like that, combined with heavy, wet snow, are a recipe for damaged trees and prolonged power outages,” said Bryce Williams, a meteorologist with the NWS’s Boston office. “That’s what we’re most concerned with, is the combination of those extreme snow amounts with that wind.”
Blustery conditions trapped vehicles and resulted in a handful of vehicle collisions in Rhode Island, the state’s governor, Dan McKee, confirmed at a Monday morning briefing. The governor also posted a video on social media of the whiteout conditions outside the state’s emergency operations office. In his message, he urged Rhode Islanders to “stay home and stay safe”.
In New York, John Berlingieri scrapped plans for a family trip to Puerto Rico. Instead, he was preparing his company, Berrington Snow Management, for what could well be a big task: clearing snow from millions of square feet of asphalt surrounding shopping malls and industrial parks across Long Island.
Employees spent the last few days recharging batteries on the company’s 40 front-end loaders and replacing windshield wipers on snow-removal vehicles.
“I’m anticipating at least one week of work around the clock,” Berlingieri said. “We’re going to work 24 to 36 hours straight, sleep for a few hours and then go back.”
While the storm conditions over the past 24 hours have been nothing short of historic, there may be more to come. The NWS said it was tracking another storm that could bring more snow to the region later this week.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
