Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spokesman Steve Coleman, hundreds of passengers at John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty airports are provided blankets and cots.
The airport should reopen on Monday afternoon about the end of time.
A blizzard warning was in effect Monday morning in Delaware at the extreme northern Maine.
Officials are urging all those who shall not have to stay away from roads in the region, where high winds pushed the snow into deep drifts through the streets, railways and runways.
This update NEWS. Check back soon for more information. AP story earlier is below.
NEW YORK (AP) – A powerful East Coast blizzard threatened would-be travelers by air, rail and road Monday, leaving thousands without means of returning home from vacation and closure of major airports and tracks for a second day.
Officials urged anyone who did not lead to stay away from roads in the region, where high winds pushed the snow into deep drifts through the streets, railways and runways. Nearly a foot and a half of snow was expected in the fall when the storm brought later in the day.
In Monmouth County, New Jersey, state horsemen carried water and food for diabetics stranded on two buses carrying passengers by about 50 people in the Garden State Parkway, where stranded cars that crowd the slopes of snow impasse plows and ambulances, state spokesman for the police Steve Jones told NBC’s “Today” show. A bus has been released by 7 o’clock and the other soon to be, “he said. Passengers reported no major medical problem.
In New York, hundreds of passenger cars Monday drowsy Long Island Rail Road train to the frozen platform. Other lay people as refugees at the entrance of the rail link to Kennedy Airport and was powerless to ticketing, waiting in vain for good news flashing on the screens of schedule. The hours passed without a single train leaving with passengers.
The buses were eliminated, and the cabins were a little more than a myth and those who tried to walk from the station were attacked with a hard, icy wind that made flakes sting like needles.
“They tried, but they can not do much with the snow. It’s just not stopping,” said Sharray Jones, 20, headed home to Long Island after visiting friends.
In Philadelphia, the cab driver Senoussaoui Farid, 33, described the sailing conditions slippery as “a video game.” Senoussaoui had worked all night during the storm and said passengers were universally grateful when he stopped to pick them up.
“The first word you hear is,” Thank you very much, “said Senoussaoui.
In New England, many commuters seemed to be answering the call to stay off the roads. In addition to Boston, the roads in the city were almost deserted on Monday morning that many workers were given a day off and others were on vacation during the holiday week.
Blizzard conditions wreaked havoc on as travelers from North Carolina to Maine.
Airlines scrambled to rebook passengers on canceled thousands of flights – more than 1,400 on the three major New York area airports alone – but said not to expect normal service to resume until Tuesday. Amtrak canceled train service from New York to Maine after having done so previously for several trains in Virginia.
The Long Island Rail Road, the nation’s largest commuter rail system, also suspended service. The bus routes canceled along the East Coast, and drivers face dangerous travel conditions – sometimes with visibility near zero.
New York John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports remain closed on Monday, as was the northern New Jersey Newark Liberty International Airport. A spokesman for Boston Logan International Airport could take days to return to normal.
Wind gusts up to 80 mph knocked out power to thousands. Utilities reported about 30,000 customers were in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, mostly on Cape Cod and south of Boston.
In Wells, Maine, police said a 59 year old man died hours after his pickup crashed into a tree in whiteout conditions on Sunday night.
Peter Iarossi, a train driver for MBCR, which operates commuter trains of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, has seen its normal stretch drive of 15 minutes to an hour due to blizzard conditions.
He woke up even earlier and was sitting in his car idling in the yard an hour before his 6:45 train was leaving to start his run in Boston.
“You’re there to get people to Boston,” said Iarossi. “You do not have an option people are counting on you -. Especially in bad weather”
Emergency room nurse Tiffany Lema, Newport, Rhode Island Hospital, said his trip normally 45 minutes of Cranston, just south of Providence, was a terrible two hours, the more painful when the truck her husband could not pass over the bridge from Newport. They turned around and parked near an office without E-ZPass electronic payment, where his father-in-law took it and it leads the rest of the journey.
“I was not going to jump at any moment, so we just turned around. It was a little scary, “said Lema, who planned to spend the night in hospital with other nurses.” You could see the car in front of you, but not over the hill, not on deck. ”
A blizzard warning, which is issued when snow is accompanied by sustained winds or gusts over 35 mph for three hours, was in force Monday morning of Delaware at the extreme northern Maine. The storm was expected to bring its heaviest snowfall in the hours before dawn Monday, sometimes dumping 2 to 4 inches an hour. A total of 12 to 16 inches was expected in almost all of Rhode Island, Connecticut and eastern Massachusetts, but forecasters said winds of 50 mph could create snowdrifts much deeper.
The state of emergency was declared in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Maine and Massachusetts, where Gov. Deval Patrick urged people not to be on the roads to stay home to ensure their safety and that of work teams. State Workers nonessential were told to stay home Monday.
In Boston, Mayor Thomas Menino declared a snow emergency that bans parking on main streets, and the New England Aquarium bubble wrapped its four 5-foot-tall ice sculptures penguin to protect against wind and snow.
More than 2,400 sanitation workers worked in shifts 12 hours to clear city of New York of 6000 miles of streets.
The monster storm is the result of a low-pressure system off the coast of North Carolina and strengthened as it moved northward, the National Weather Service said. Because of it, some parts of the South have had their first white Christmas since records were kept.
Johnson reported from Haverhill, Mass., contributed to this report was Associated Press writers David Sharp in Portland, Maine, Leon Drouin-Keith, New York, Kathy Matheson in Philadelphia, and Bruce Shipkowski in Trenton, New Jersey
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