Storm passes, cleanup starts on East Coast

Death toll at 30; airports, roadways begin to reopen

People attempt to dig out their parked cars Sunday in the Chinatown neighborhood of New York after a blizzard that dropped more than 30 inches of snow in some parts of the city.
People attempt to dig out their parked cars Sunday in the Chinatown neighborhood of New York after a blizzard that dropped more than 30 inches of snow in some parts of the city.

A storm system that blanketed the East Coast in snow moved out to sea Sunday, leaving 30 people dead, dropping near-record snowfall in some major cities and causing heavy flooding along the coast.

Residents emerged with snowplows and shovels, and tens of thousands of stranded travelers were scrambling to get to their destinations or find other arrangements.

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AP

Rhianna McCarte, 30, joins her neighbors in digging out their cars Sunday in Alexandria, Va.

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AP

Ben Osborn carries a shovel past a line of snowed-in cars Sunday in Washington.

Sunday morning arrived on the Eastern Seaboard with low temperatures and clear skies, as states and cities assessed the storm's effect and outlined cleanup efforts that could last well into the week.

Authorities cautioned against unnecessary driving, airline schedules were in disarray and commuter trains will be delayed or canceled for many as the work week begins today.

"Happy Sunday to all," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a news conference Sunday. "We survived, and then some."

In New York City, the storm left more than 30 inches of snow in some parts and dropped a single-day record of 26.6 inches on Central Park.

High winds on Manhattan's Upper West Side kept the snow from entirely covering the Mini Cooper of Daniel Bardman, who nervously watched for falling icicles as he dug out.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio encouraged people to let their cars remain covered with snow all week.

That advice came too late for Bob Raldiris, who tried shoveling his Nissan Maxima out of a spot in the Queens borough before passing plows and trucks spoiled his labor. "This is terrible," he said, pointing to a pile of snow 3 feet high.

New York City schools will be open today, de Blasio said, and sanitation crews were pressed to get roads prepared for school buses to begin their early morning routes. De Blasio said he hoped that higher temperatures expected this week would help clear the snow.

At 7 a.m. Sunday, New York state and city officials lifted a travel ban imposed Saturday afternoon. Tunnels and bridges into the city, all of which had been closed during the storm, reopened, as well, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Service had been suspended during the storm on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad, as well as the aboveground routes of the subway and the Staten Island Railway.

On Sunday morning, some Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses began rolling again.

Digging out

Overall snowfall of 26.8 inches in Central Park made it New York's second-biggest winter storm since records began in 1869, and Saturday's 26.6 inches made for a single-day record in the city.

In Washington, the official three-day total of 17.8 inches measured at Reagan National Airport was short of accumulations recorded elsewhere in the city. An official total of 22.4 inches was measured at the National Zoo, for example.

Maryland and West Virginia reported up to 40 inches in some areas.

"This is the most significant winter storm that Maryland has ever faced," Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said. "We got an entire season's worth of snow in 36 hours."

Hogan said state offices will be closed today.

In Baltimore, which had a record 29.2 inches of snow, more than 600 people responded to organizer Aaron Brazell's Facebook invitation for a snowball fight.

"I knew people would be cooped up in their houses and wanting to come outside," said Brazell, who was beaned by multiple blasts of snow.

Francesca McCarter, 68, of Buckeystown, Md., was trapped in her home briefly by drifts.

"It took me a while to get out of my house, because the snow was blocking both doors," McCarter said.

"One of the people at church called, and he said he's going to plow me out," she said, adding that she intended to share dinner with neighbors. "Maybe it's God's way of telling us to slow down a little bit."

One concern is where to put the snow. Hogan said Maryland has facilities where it can be "stockpiled, and we just wait for it to melt." In Washington, crews will load the snow in trucks and take it to parking lots, including one at RFK Stadium, where the Redskins used to play.

Along with clearing snow and ice from facilities and equipment, the operators of airlines, trains and transit systems in the region had to figure out how to get snowbound employees to work.

Flying remained messy after nearly 12,000 weekend flights were canceled. Airports resumed very limited service in New York City, Baltimore and Philadelphia, which said it got an entire winter's snow in two days.

Runways at both Washington airports -- Reagan National and Dulles International -- remained closed. Dulles, in suburban Virginia, recorded nearly 30 inches of snow, making the blizzard the second-snowiest storm on record there.

Major airlines also canceled hundreds of flights for today.

Flights to and from Europe also were affected, with many major carriers reporting delays or cancellations involving flights between the U.S. and airports in Denmark, England, France, Germany and Russia.

Amtrak operated a reduced number of trains on all its routes, serving many people who couldn't get around otherwise, spokesman Marc Magliari said. But bus and rail service was expected to be limited around the region into today.

The Metro -- the Washington region's subway and bus mass transit system -- was not expected to resume service until today.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike reopened Sunday afternoon near Pittsburgh after more than 500 cars, trucks and buses -- some carrying the Duquesne University men's basketball team and the Temple University women's gymnastics squad -- got stuck Friday night. The backup happened after trucks couldn't climb through the mountains toward the Allegheny tunnels in what would become 35 inches of snow.

But one day of sunshine wasn't enough to clear many other roads. Federal offices will be closed today, and Virginia's state workers were told to stay home. Schools from Washington to the Jersey Shore gave students today off; in the D.C. suburbs, classes also were canceled for Tuesday.

Storm's victims

The storm was a swirling, sprawling mass with a reach of nearly 1,000 miles from the Gulf Coast to New England. It flooded low-lying beaches and brought down trees and power lines, leaving thousands without electricity. The storm also glazed roads and varnished trees as it pummeled the Mid-Atlantic region.

The ocean poured into shore towns in southern New Jersey. In Sea Isle City, floodwaters laden with chunks of ice surged down the streets, and in Wildwood water submerged cars halfway up to their windows. In Belmar, the wind drove a sailboat out of its marina and tangled its mast in overhead wires, knocking out power.

One of the people who died in the storm had stopped to help a stranded motorist on the side of a North Carolina highway and was found shot, according to a report in The Charlotte Observer.

But most of the storm's victims died while attempting to drive on icy highways or shovel snow. By 4 a.m., the New York Police Department had responded to 401 accidents and towed 367 vehicles, a spokesman said. Three of those who died while shoveling were New Yorkers -- men ages 67, 78 and 80 -- in Queens and Staten Island, authorities said. Two more were on Long Island: a 61-year-old man in West Hempstead and a 94-year-old man in Smithtown, whose body was found next to a snow blower, authorities said.

In Maryland, a 60-year-old man died of a heart attack while shoveling on Saturday, said a spokesman for the Prince George's County Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department.

As the Washington region transitioned from blizzard to cleanup, residential neighborhoods and Maryland suburbs were buried under 2 feet of snow, and many streets had not yet been plowed. Two major highways in Maryland -- Interstates 70 and 270 -- that were closed overnight reopened early Sunday.

The House of Representatives canceled this week's session.

The House originally was scheduled to go into session this evening and conclude Wednesday morning, but Republican leaders announced Sunday morning that they were calling it off because travel plans would have been so difficult, with thousands of flights canceled and highways still being cleared of snow.

House Democrats have an issue-setting retreat set to begin Wednesday afternoon in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, which had already shortened the session.

The votes that were scheduled -- on an Iran sanctions measure and legislation to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act -- will be held next week.

The Senate is still scheduled to start its week on Tuesday afternoon.

Information for this article was contributed by Ashley Southall, Sarah Maslin Nir, Nicholas Fandos, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Jon Hurdle, Michael Barbaro, Mark S. Getzfred, Andy Newman, Emily Palmer, Noah Remnick, Nate Schweber, and Jonathan Wolfe of The New York Times; by Michael R. Sisak, Verena Dobnik, Ben Nuckols, Bruce Shipkowski, William Mathis, Scott Mayerowitz, Jake Pearson, Alex Brandon, Lolita C. Baldor, Jessica Gresko, and Juliet Linderman of The Associated Press; by Paul Kane of The Washington Post; by Jeremy Hodges, Jesper Starn, Dalia Fahmy, Fabio Benedetti-Valentini and Jan-Henrik Forster of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 01/25/2016

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