BOSTON/NEW YORK (REUTERS, NYTIMES) - A powerful blizzard battered the US Northeast, knocking out power for tens of thousands of people and snarling travel amid a long cold snap that has gripped much of the United States for more than a week and killed more than a dozen people.
Thousands of flights were cancelled, firefighters scrambled to rescue motorists from flooded streets in Boston, National Guard troops were mobilised in the Northeast and New York City's two main airports halted flights because of whiteout conditions.
The storm was powered by a rapid plunge in barometric pressure that some weather forecasters called a bombogenesis or a "bomb cyclone." It brought high winds and swift, heavy snowfall.
In central Boston, a 1m tidal surge flooded a subway station and turned a popular tourist district into a slushy tundra. Heavy snow and high winds also hit New York.
"Today, I thought Manhattan was going to have the streets cleaned up, but I see not," said Valentine Williams, who usually operates an electric scooter to deliver food in New York City.
Williams, 28, made deliveries on foot on Thursday because of the snow. No customers complained that he was slower than usual. "They're just surprised that I'm out here," he added.
Officials feared fast-dropping temperatures after the storm passed would turn snow on roadways to ice.
"This is a serious, serious storm," New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference. "We expect tough conditions for days to come, particularly in terms of cold."
Ahead of that threat, snowplows and salt trucks were dispatched along streets and highways and schools were closed through much of the region. In Boston, Mayor Marty Walsh said schools would remain closed on Friday (Jan 5).
Blizzard warnings were in effect along the East Coast from North Carolina to Maine. The National Weather Service measured wind gusts of more than 113kph, which downed power lines.
Almost 80,000 homes and businesses in the Northeast and Southeast, where the storm struck on Wednesday, were without power.
The Boston area received 30cm of snow, with more on the way, according to the US National Weather Service.
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EUROPE
• French Alps on maximum avalanche alert.
• Some 29,000 French homes remained without power, a third of them in Corsica.
CHINA
• Snow alert in China at its second-highest level this week.
• Three airports shut after heavy snowfall.
The wintry weather has been blamed for at least 14 deaths in the past few days, including four fatalities in North Carolina traffic accidents and three in Texas because of the cold.
Nearly 500 members of the National Guard were activated along the East Coast to assist with emergency response, including 200 in New York state, the US Department of Defense said in a statement.
More than 5,000 US airline flights were cancelled.
New York's LaGuardia Airport temporarily halted all flights because of whiteout conditions, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The airport said later on Twitter that the suspension had been lifted. At New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, flights were expected to resume on Thursday night, after a similar suspension.
Passenger train operator Amtrak ran reduced service in the Northeast. Sporadic delays were reported on transit systems, including New York state's Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North commuter lines, as well as the Boston area's Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority system.
"Years of Band-Aid solutions create nightmare situations when storm damage occurs," said Joseph Schwieterman, a professor of public policy and specialist in transportation systems at DePaul University in Chicago. "Replacement parts are tough to find and maintenance process turns into major headache."
In New York's Fort Greene neighbourhood, Mohammed Farid Khan said his morning commute took three times as long as usual because of train woes.
"There were only local trains, no express," Khan, 30, said as he hunched with an electric drill trying to fix the handle of his snow shovel inside the convenience store where he works.
In Boston, the tidal surge flooded the area around the city's historic Long Wharf with icy seawater. Firefighters used an inflatable raft to rescue one motorist from a car surrounded by water up to its door handles, Boston Fire Commissioner Joseph Finn told reporters.
In Canada, more than 80,000 customers were hit by power outages in the province of Nova Scotia on Thursday evening, leaving parts of the city of Halifax in the dark as the massive storm arrived from the United States.
More than 85,000 customers were affected in Nova Scotia early Friday Singapore time, according to data from the Nova Scotia Power utility website.
Most departing and arriving flights were also cancelled or delayed at Halifax Stanfield airport.
Through Friday, as much as 45cm of snow is expected in parts of New Brunswick, while more than 50cm could be dumped on the eastern tip of the Gaspe Peninsula in the province of Quebec, according to Environment Canada.
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