East Coast is awakening after blizzard leaves 25 dead

A massive snowstorm that affected most of the East Coast finally ended Sunday morning, leaving in its wake 1-3 feet of snow over major cities, at least 18 storm-associated casualties and severe coastal flooding.

Millions of Americans started digging themselves out Sunday after a mammoth blizzard with hurricane-force winds and record-setting snowfall brought much of the East Coast to an icy standstill.

Washington recorded 22.4 inches at the National Zoo.

The National Weather Service said 45.2cm of snow fell in Washington, a tie with the fourth-largest snowfall in the USA capital’s history.

The blizzard also severely hindered normal life in Baltimore.

That topped the city’s previous record of 26.8 inches, set during the “Presidents Day Storm” of 2003. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said the commonwealth is spending $2 million to $3 million an hour to clear snow and treat roads across the state.

The Metro-North rail line, which serves suburbs north and east of New York City, was restored on Sunday afternoon. High winds on Manhattan’s Upper West Side kept the snow from entirely swallowing the tiny Mini Cooper of Daniel Bardman, who nervously watched for falling icicles as he dug out.

Plows struggled to clear streets, where parked cars were buried under the snow and visibility worsened Saturday as night fell and howling winds created massive snowdrifts.

That advice came too late for Bob Raldiris, who tried shoveling his Nissan Maxima out of a spot in Ridgewood, Queens, before passing plows and trucks spoiled his labor.

“I knew people would be cooped up in their houses and wanting to come outside”, he said as he was beaned by multiple blasts of perfectly soft but firm snow.

“The timing couldn’t be better in our ability to respond because it was exactly in the beginning of the weekend”, de Blasio said.

In Washington, enthusiasts organized a “Star Wars”-themed snowball fight among mostly young adults in the Dupont Circle neighborhood”.

“There’s considerable danger with the tide coming up”, he said.

State officials in Pennsylvania also reported improving conditions, after many motorists got stuck on the Pennsylvania Turnpike on Friday and Saturday.

– Public schools in D.C. and Philadelphia, and some New Jersey and New York City schools, will also be closed on Monday.

Flying remained hard after almost 12,000 weekend flights were cancelled. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency, as did 10 other governors.

The sun is shining on Washington, D.C., but mass transit remains shut down and the Dulles and Reagan National airports are expected to remain closed.

About 3750 flights were cancelled on Sunday, and 700 were cancelled for Monday, according to FlightAware.com, an aviation data and tracking website. Along with clearing snow and ice from facilities and equipment, the operators of airlines, train and transit systems had to figure out how to get snowbound employees to work.

Amtrak ran fewer trains on all its routes, serving many people who couldn’t travel otherwise, spokesman Marc Magliari said. Judy Tenenbaum refused and walked a dozen blocks to reach another stop.

“I want to be very clear with everybody”. And a growing number of people died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

The Duquesne University basketball team was stranded for 22 hours, arriving back on its campus in Pittsburgh just before 11 p.m. Saturday, 30 hours after it left George Mason University in Fairfax City, Va. The team passed the time playing cards and using pizza boxes as shovels, live-tweeting the event to an increasingly growing audience.

“I cleaned this two or three times and they keep blocking me in”, Peter Quamina said as he shoveled out the front of his driveway in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Authorities say 87-year-old Robert Bell and his 86-year-old wife Ruby had lost power during the storm on Friday night and set up a generator in their garage.

Roofs collapsed on a Pennsylvania church, a Virginia theater, and a barn outside Frederick, Md., which got 33.5 inches of snow, killing some cows. Douglas Fink felt awful about that: “I was trying to protect them, but they probably would have been better off just standing outside”.