NEW YORK (AP) — Millions across the northeastern United States on Tuesday contended with treks to school and work as they dug out from a major — and in some areas record-breaking — storm that blanketed the region with snow, canceled flights, disrupted transit and downed power lines.
Even as the snow moved north Tuesday, giving way to sunshine in parts of the region, the National Weather Service warned another storm originating in the Great Lakes was right around the corner, though it's not forecast to be nearly as severe.
Many large school districts remained closed, including in Boston and Hartford, Connecticut. But in New York City, more than 900,000 students in the nation’s largest public school system had a regular day, Mayor Zohran Mamdani declared, inviting kids to pelt him with snowballs over his decision.
Many students and their caregivers seemed open to taking the mayor up on that idea, as they scrambled over mountainous snow banks and dodged salt spreaders during the morning drop-off.
“We’re walking on thin ice here. One more day would’ve been fine,” said Danielle Obloj, the parent of a Brooklyn fifth grader. “They should never have let these kids come back to school.”
Nearly 1 in 6 teachers called out sick Tuesday, the first day back after the blizzard and a midwinter break, city officials said.
Mamdani, a Democrat, and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels noted that families rely on in-person school for education and many other things, including parents’ ability to go to work. The officials also maintained that it would have been complicated to roll out remote learning at the end of a midwinter break.
Others hailed the city’s efforts at snow-clearing.
“It was much better than last time — an easy commute, no problems whatsoever,” said Raul Garcia, as he exited a cab with his three school-age children. “We thought it was going to be really bad walking, but looking at the streets, they’re so clean.”
Preliminary attendance data shows 63% of the roughly 900,000 students came in, Samuels said. City data show the average attendance rate for the last school year was about 90%. Mamdani said about 12,000 of the school system’s 78,800 teachers called out sick. The city called in more than 5,000 substitutes
Philadelphia switched to online learning Monday and Tuesday, while districts on Long Island and elsewhere in the New York suburbs canceled school again Tuesday.
Roads are reopening and mass transit is coming back online
Monday’s storm that meteorologists are calling the strongest in a decade dumped more than 2 feet (0.6 meters) of snow in parts of the Northeast. More than 3 feet (0.9 meters) fell in Rhode Island — surpassing snow totals from the historic Blizzard of 1978 that struck the Northeast, the National Weather Service said.
By Tuesday morning, roads began to reopen, mass transportation came back online in some cities and power had returned for some of the hundreds of thousands who had lost electricity in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Delaware and Rhode Island. More than 100,000 remained without power in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, which operates essentially on a single circuit, according to Douglas Foley, president of electric operations for the utility Eversource.
Amtrak canceled some trains between Boston and New York and between New York and Philadelphia on Tuesday morning.
But other railroads were open, including New Jersey Transit, and the Long Island Railroad “unleashed” a snow-clearing train car known as “Darth Vader” to clear snow drifts.
Another storm is on the way
The weather service said it's tracking another storm that could bring snow to the Great Lakes on Tuesday before pushing into the Northeast on Wednesday. The clipper storm brings the prospect of a combination of rain and some snow.
The new storm is not expected to be as strong, but even a few extra inches of snow on top of hard-hit areas could make cleanup more difficult, said Frank Pereira, meteorologist for the weather service in College Park, Maryland.
Canceled flights and a snowball fight
The weather service referred to Monday’s storm as a “classic bomb cyclone/nor’easter off the Northeast coast.” A bomb cyclone happens when a storm’s pressure falls by a certain amount within a 24-hour period.
Roughly 2,200 flights in and out of the U.S. were canceled Tuesday, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. Most of the cancellations involved airports in New York, New Jersey and Boston.
Rhode Island’s T.F. Green International Airport halted all flights Monday as it dealt with nearly 38 inches (97 centimeters) of snow, according to the Weather Service, breaking a record of 28.6 inches (72.6 centimeters) set in 1978. Flights resumed Tuesday afternoon.
Along with the disruptions, the storm led to the creation of armies of snowmen and other sculptures as well as snowball fights.
A massivesnowball fight erupted Monday in New York City’s Washington Square Park, but video showed two outnumbered police officers being pelted by snowballs. City police commissioner Jessica Tisch called the behavior “disgraceful” and “criminal.”
Plans for snow removal
In New York City, city workers will soon deploy snow melters — massive basins of warm water where large amounts of snow and ice will be dumped, acting Sanitation Commissioner Javier Lojan said Tuesday. They helped melt 23 million pounds (11.5 metric tons) of snow during last month's storm.
In snowbound Providence, Rhode Island, the city is taking snow to five locations, according to Josh Estrella, communications director for the city government. The challenge is so great that additional dumping grounds may be added, Estrella said.
State Rep. David Morales has criticized the city for hauling snow to a vacant lot slated for redevelopment in South Providence.
Morales called that part of Providence “the most polluted part of the city” and home to a dense population of people of color.
Estrella said the five dumping locations are scattered around Providence. “One, for equity,” Estrella said. “Two, we have snow haulers go where it’s closer to them.” He said the South Providence lot is the largest and easiest to push snow into.
Storm strands juror as sex trafficking trial resumes
Storm-related travel disruptions even impacted the resumption of a high-profile criminal case in Manhattan federal court.
A juror in the sex trafficking trial of wealthy brothers Alon, Oren and Tal Alexander was “trapped in Miami” and wasn’t scheduled for a return flight until Friday, prompting Judge Valerie Caproni to dismiss the stranded juror from the case Tuesday.
The trial wasn’t held last week to accommodate jurors whose children were on a school break.
“I am loath to lose another juror, but I am also loath to lose another week of trial,” Caproni said.
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This story has been corrected to show that more than 900,000 public school students were affected by Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s decision to keep schools open, not more than 1 million.
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Catalini reported from Morrisville, Pennsylvania. Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz and Michael R. Sisak in New York; Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu; and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.