Blizzard Dumps Thigh-High Snow, Bringing The East To A Standstill Airports, Roads, Schools, U.N. Closed; Death Toll Reaches 46

A blizzard of historic proportions shut down the East at the start of the workweek Monday, stopping cars, trains, planes and just about anything else that moves. At least 46 deaths were blamed on the weather.

“The snow in some places was thigh-high. You had no idea whether you were stepping onto a curb or a snow-covered sinkhole. I did both,” said lawyer Ron Kuby in New York City.

Only emergency vehicles were allowed on many highways and New York City streets - Hoboken, N.J., even set up roadblocks - and all major airports were closed from Washington to Boston. Bus lines also shut down, and passengers from one Amtrak train were stuck in a West Virginia hotel.

Hundreds of truckers and other travelers were stuck in truck stops, restaurants and highway service areas.

It was the third worst snowstorm on record for New York City, where 20.6 inches piled up in skyscraper-surrounded Central Park. Outlying Staten Island got more, with 27.5 inches.

“It reminds me of when I was growing up in Iceland,” said Olos Haggerty, trying to get a cab to his workplace in New York City.

The city’s worst blizzard was the day after Christmas in 1947, when 26.4 inches fell. But there was little wind, unlike the blizzard of March 12, 1888, when 21 inches were heaped into drifts that reached second-story windows. The 1888 storm killed more than 300 people on the East Coast.

The Northeast also got heavy snow in 1983, when Philadelphia received a record 21.3 inches. That city got more this time: 30.3 inches.

The Baltimore region got 23 inches this time, just short of the 24.7-inch record set in the blizzard of 1922.

The most snow was in the Appalachians, with 43 inches in West Virginia’s Webster County and 30 inches in parts of Virginia and Tennessee. Far to the south, Georgia got a foot of snow and Alabama highways were ice-covered.

Mail delivery was halted in Washington and New York City, and hundreds of schools were closed from Georgia to New Hampshire. New York City’s 1 million schoolchildren enjoyed their first “snow day” since 1978; classes were canceled until at least Wednesday.

Much of the federal government also was shut down, and Republican presidential candidates Phil Gramm and Bob Dole had to cancel New Hampshire campaign treks because they couldn’t get out of Washington. The United Nations also was closed.

The New York, American and Nasdaq stock exchanges opened late for abbreviated sessions. But the storm shut down the New York Mercantile Exchange and the New York Commodity Exchange.

Doctors at one New York hospital reported a “mini-epidemic” of at least 12 people who had suffered carbon monoxide poisoning while sitting in cars with engines running and tailpipes stuck in the snow.

Even using cross-country skis was dangerous. Vivian Toan ran into trouble using her skis on New York’s Brooklyn Bridge. “I almost got blown off,” she said. “I had to hang on to some of the cables.”

On New York’s Fire Island, a restaurant and three houses collapsed during the blizzard and washed out to sea, said Jay Lippert, a ranger at Fire Island National Seashore. He said four big holes in the dunes are all that is left.

Philadelphia city crews have trucked away about 800 tons of snow, dumping it in the Schuylkill River, but the nation’s fifth-largest city still resembled a ghost town with drifts up to 6 feet high.

Major airports for Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, New York City and Newark, N.J., were shut down, and waiting areas were turned into shelters. Drifts at New York’s airports were as high as 20 feet.