NEW YORK (AP) — Millions of people in New York City and a large swath of the northeastern U.S. were stuck at home under road travel bans and blizzard warnings Monday as heavy snow and strong winds intensified, creating whiteout conditions in the densely populated region.
Snow fell at a rate of 2 to 3 inches (5 to 7.6 centimeters) an hour early Monday from New York through Massachusetts. Some areas have gotten well over a foot (30 centimeters) of snow since Sunday, along with wind gusts of over 30 mph (48 kph) and low visibility.
In New York, Long Island MacArthur Airport reported 22.5 inches (57 centimeters) of snow as of Monday morning. About 18 inches (46 centimeters) was reported in Newark, New Jersey, and about 15 inches (38 centimeters) fell in New York City’s Central Park. New London, Connecticut, and North Kingstown, Rhode Island, both got 17 inches of snow (43 centimeters).
The National Weather Service called travel conditions “nearly impossible.”
Blizzard warnings stretched from Maryland to Maine. Cellphones across New York City received wailing push alerts Sunday night announcing a ban on non-emergency travel on all streets through noon Monday because of “dangerous blizzard conditions.” Rhode Island and New Jersey implemented similar restrictions.
More than 5,000 flights in and out of the United States were canceled for Monday, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. Most were canceled in New York, New Jersey and Boston. Rhode Island’s T.F. Green International Airport announced Monday that it was temporarily suspending all airport operations.
Public transit was suspended in some areas. Even DoorDash announced it was suspending deliveries in New York City overnight.
The storm caused power outages that left more than 500,000 customers in the dark along the East Coast early Monday, including over 212,000 customers in Massachusetts and 128,000 customers in New Jersey, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide.
About 10,000 customers were without power Monday morning on suburban Long Island. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said utility crews will restore power as soon as possible, but winds of 50 mph (kph 80) or higher could delay action.
“The line men and women are not going up there to restore power if they have to go up on a power line. So … people have to understand that we will do it as soon as it’s safe to have that occur,” Hochul told PIX11 in New York.
The storm dropped fresh snow across the region as accumulations from an earlier storm had just melted away — except for gray mountainous piles in certain places. People began digging out even as snowfall continued Monday morning.
Trae Story, 31, was doing some shoveling for a neighbor in Brooklyn.
“I’m from Minnesota, so this is like, normal,” he said, adding “I might’ve broken a sweat. It’s like my warm-up for the day.”
Matthew Wojtkowiak, 57, an attorney, was also shoveling in his Brooklyn neighborhood.
“I’m from the Midwest, so this is in the zone,” he said. “Not too bad, not too easy, either.”
Schools were closed, and he said he hoped people would get out and enjoy the snow.
“We have sleds at the ready,” he said.
Emergencies were declared in New York, Philadelphia and other cities, as well as several states stretching from Delaware to Massachusetts as officials mobilized readiness efforts.
“The combination of heavy snowfall and strong winds will continue to produce blizzard conditions along the Northeastern Seaboard,” the weather service said Monday. “Sharply reduced visibility will make travel extremely treacherous across these areas.”
The weather service referred to the storm as a “classic bomb cyclone/nor’easter off the Northeast coast." A bomb cyclone is when a storm drops at least 24 millibars in pressure in 24 hours.
Heaviest snow is falling and wind picking up
The weather service said the snow was expected to taper off by Monday afternoon.
New York City and Boston canceled public school classes for Monday, while Philadelphia will switch to online learning. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani called it the “first old-school snow day since 2019.”
“And to kids across New York City, you have a very serious mission if you choose to accept it: Stay cozy,” he said.
Meanwhile, outreach workers worked to coax homeless New Yorkers off the street and into shelters and warming centers.
Various landmarks and cultural institutions announced closures Monday, from New York's Museum of Modern Art to Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Broadway shows were canceled Sunday evening.
The weather service said the storm’s strong wind gusts could cause whiteout conditions and warned of a “Potentially Historic/Destructive Storm” southeast 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 weather service’s Boston office. “That’s what we’re most concerned with, is the combination of those extreme snow amounts with that wind.”
Shovelers recruited for major snow clearing
In addition to their robust plow operations, New York City officials recruited people to shovel snow, with some beginning work Sunday night to get an early start on the first wave of snowfall, Mamdani said.
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 mammoth task: Clearing snow from millions of square feet (meters) 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.”
Izaguirre reported from Albany, New York, and Rush reported from Portland, Oregon. Contributing were Associated Press writers Mark Kennedy in New York; Darlene Superville in Washington; and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles.
