Millions of people in New York City and a large swath of the north-eastern US were stuck at home under road travel bans and blizzard warnings on Monday as heavy snow and strong winds intensified, creating whiteout conditions in the densely populated region.
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.
Rhode Island received a record-breaking 32.8in, far surpassing the two-day snowfall record of 28.6in set 48 years ago, according to the NWS.
Long Island’s MacArthur airport reported 20in of snow as of Monday morning. Freehold, New Jersey, had 19in.
New York’s Times Square blanketed in snow as city hit by major winter blizzard
The NWS called travel conditions “nearly impossible”.
Blizzard warnings stretched from Maryland to Maine. Cellphones across New York City received wailing push alerts on 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.
At noon on Monday, New York mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed that the city’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”.
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.
A man helps push a taxi stuck in the snow during a snow storm on Monday in New York City. Photograph: Seth Wenig/AP
Public transit was suspended in some areas. Even DoorDash announced it was suspending deliveries in New York City, continuing until at least 2pm ET on Monday.
Despite the storm, public transit is still running in New York City, 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, nearly 300,000 residents are without power across the state.
Thick snow buries New York’s Times Square
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 NWS said on Monday. “Sharply reduced visibility will make travel extremely treacherous across these areas.”
The NWS meteorologist Frank Pereira said the storm could possibly become a bomb cyclone, which is when a storm drops at least 24 millibars in pressure in 24 hours.
The NWS said the snow was expected to taper off by Monday afternoon.
Philadelphia will switch to online learning. Boston and New York City canceled public school classes for Monday.
A person walks through a winter blizzard in Somerville, Massachusetts, on Monday. Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters
“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.
While office workers across the north-east logged on to remote work on Monday morning, employees at JPMorgan Chase’s New York headquarters weren’t afforded the same opportunity. A spokesperson for the company confirmed to the Guardian that it will be go forward with hosting an in-person event for investors at their office in midtown, as the New York Times reported. The JPMorgan Chase spokesperson noted that there will 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.
The New York City skyline is rendered invisible during a blizzard on Monday. Photograph: Julius Constantine Motal/The Guardian
Mamdani said in an interview on Monday morning 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 DC. Broadway shows were canceled 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.”
Children sled in Central Park as snow falls during a winter storm in New York City on Monday. Photograph: Jeenah Moon/Reuters
Blustery conditions have 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 Massachusetts, officials said at a news conference that they are expecting blizzard effects to continue until Tuesday morning. Dawn Brantley, the state’s emergency management director, reported downed trees, power lines and stranded cars. Officials also called on residents to work from home on Tuesday if possible, so that the roads can stay clear for snow removal and power restoration. “We’ve got to be able to get snow cleared as quickly as possible, so that we can get power restored as quickly as possible,” Maura Healey, the state’s governor, said in a news conference.
In addition to their robust plow operations, New York City officials recruited people to shovel snow, with some beginning work on Sunday night to get an early start on the first wave of snowfall, Mamdani said. In New York City, residents can check snow removal process on their streets at PlowNYC, a website run by the city’s department of sanitation.
On Monday afternoon, Mamdani announced in a social media video that emergency snow shoveling pay had increased to $30 an hour due to “the historic nature of this blizzard” and called on New Yorkers to sign up to clear crosswalks, bus stops and fire hydrants.
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 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.”
The Associated Press contributed reporting
