MBABANE: A massive snowstorm has pummelled the northeast United States with residents, municipal workers, and a powerful railroad snow-clearing machine nicknamed “Darth Vader” working tirelessly to excavate the region, Aljazeera reported on Tuesday.
It has been reported that, the storm - record-breaking in some areas - forced millions of people to stay home, shut schools and caused the cancellation of thousands of flights on Monday.
“The weather event, which meteorologists described as the most powerful in a decade, left more than 24 inches (61cm) of snow in parts of the northeast US. By Tuesday, authorities began reopening roads, restoring mass transit in certain cities, and reinstating power to portions of the hundreds of thousands of residents who had lost electricity across the states of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Delaware and Rhode Island,” reads the Aljazeera report in part.
But in New York, where classes were cancelled on Monday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that schools would resume in-person instruction on Tuesday – a decision that led to concerns about feasibility, given the snow-clogged pavements.
More than 2,000 flights to and from the US were cancelled on Tuesday, according to FlightAware, with the majority of disruptions occurring at airports in New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
Rhode Island’s TF Green international airport halted operations on Monday after receiving nearly 38 inches (97cm) of snow, surpassing a 1978 record.
New York’s Central Park recorded nineteen (19) inches (48cm) of snowfall, while it measured more than 36 inches (91cm) in Warwick, Rhode Island – the highest total in the nation. Nantucket in Massachusetts experienced the strongest wind gust, recorded at 134km/h (83mph), with hurricane-force gusts reported across Cape Cod.
A worker with the Times Square Alliance sanitation crew shovels snow in Times Square in New York, US. [Seth Wenig/AP Photo]