A MASSIVE clear up operation will begin this morning along the eastern seaboard of the United States after the paralysing blizzard which closed roads and airports and shut down the nation's government.
Weather forecasters said another snow storm would hit the area later this week, though it would not have the same intensity as the weekend blizzard which brought record snowfalls to many major cities.
Washington had its third biggest snowstorm ever, with final snow depths varying from 14 inches at National Airport to 31 inches in the suburbs. Philadelphia had 30 inches of snow, heating its previous record of 21 inches in 1983.
In New York, Manhattan was a ghost town yesterday and the United Nations shut down after the city's heaviest snowfall since 1947. Many with essential jobs skied or sledded to their office and the usually frantic morning rush hour did not take place.
The blizzard in Boston was said to be one of the top five in the city's history. The US National Weather Service confirmed yesterday that the storm was one of the worst to hit the eastern US this century. At least eight deaths were attributed to the weather.
States of emergency were declared in Washington DC, Georgia, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.
All flights were cancelled yesterday in and out of Logan airport in Boston, John F Kennedy International and La Guardia in New York, Newark International in New Jersey, and Dulles and National airports in Washington.
Some 2,600 passengers were stranded at New York airports but decisions by the major airlines to stop flying before the storm prevented many thousands more from being left at terminals.
Train services were cut by two thirds in the north eastern corridor. For the first time ever the New Jersey turnpike part of the main highway running north south along the east coast of the US was closed. Hotels and motels were packed with stranded passengers.
Some 200 passengers in a Washington Metro train were forced to stay aboard without light or heat throughout Sunday night when their carriages got stuck on an overland stretch of line in the suburb of Silver Springs.
The Office of Personnel Management in Washington ordered the federal government to stay shut yesterday, the day many federal workers were to return to normal operations for the first time since December 16th. On Saturday President Clinton and Republican leaders agreed on a measure temporarily ending their budget battle and funding the government until January 26th.
In Georgia, a southern state not used to snowfall, Governor Zell Miller declared a state of emergency in four north eastern counties that were hit with nearly 12 inches of snow. Snow fell as far south as Georgia and as far north as eastern Canada, and reached into the US mid west in the Ohio valley.
The storm began on Saturday, when a depression travelled north along the east coast drawing in moisture over a cold arctic air mass. Mr Joe Goudsward, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the Washington area experienced a strange phenomena called "thunder snow" whereby a low pressure system coupled with an unstable atmosphere causes thunder and lightning in the midst of the snow.