Travel bans, flight cancellations pile up as winter storm blasts U.S. northeast

A massive snowstorm pummelled the northeast United States on Monday, forcing millions of people to stay home amid strong wind and blizzard warnings, transportation shutdowns, and school and business closures.

Officials declared emergencies from Delaware to Massachusetts, and hundreds of thousands of people grappled with power failure from downed electrical lines.

Even as digging out began, the National Weather Service warned Monday that perilous conditions could persist.

"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.

New York City and Boston cancelled public school classes for Monday, while Philadelphia switched 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.

People begin digging out even as the snowfall continued. Trae Story, 31, was doing some shovelling for a neighbour in Brooklyn.

"I'm from Minnesota, so this is like, normal," he said. "I might've broken a sweat. It's like my warm-up for the day."

Matthew Wojtkowiak, 57, an attorney, was also shovelling in his Brooklyn neighbourhood.

"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 kids would get out and enjoy the snow.

New York, Philadelphia and other cities, as well as several states, declared emergencies.

More than 5,000 flights in and out of the United States were cancelled for Monday, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. Most were cancelled in New York, New Jersey and Boston.

Rhode Island's T.F. Green International Airport announced Monday that it was temporarily ending all airport operations.

Canadian airports were urging travellers to check the status of their flights with the airlines they have been scheduled to fly with.

In New York City, several subway lines reported severe delays, while the Long Island Rail Road was fully suspended until further notice. Some Metro-North commuter trains between New York City and its suburbs were delayed by up to an hour. New Jersey Transit suspended bus and rail services "until further notice."

Storm-related power outages plunged more than 500,000 customers into darkness 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 countrywide.

About 10,000 customers were without power Monday morning on suburban Long Island. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said utility crews would restore power as soon as possible, but winds of 80 km/h could hamper those efforts.

The National Weather Service said 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."

Meanwhile, outreach workers worked to coax homeless New Yorkers off the street and into shelters and warming centres.

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 cancelled Sunday evening.

With the storm zeroing in, John Berlingieri scrapped plans for a family trip to Puerto Rico. Instead, he was preparing his Long Island-based 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, before resting up Saturday.

"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."