Northeast US digs out from brutal storm that disrupted flights and canceled school

NEW YORK (AP) — Neighbors, government workers and a powerful railroad snow-clearing machine nicknamed “Darth Vader” scrambled to dig out much of the northeastern United States from a brutal and — in some areas — record-breaking storm that blanketed the region with snow and resulted in thousands of flight cancellations.

But as the snow moved northward and tapered off in other areas Tuesday, forecasters warned that another storm could be right around the corner.

Monday’s storm that meteorologists are calling the strongest in a decade dumped more than 2 feet (61 centimeters) of snow in parts of the Northeast. By Tuesday, roads were beginning to reopen, mass transportation was coming 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.

In New York City, which canceled classed Monday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that schools would reopen for in person learning on Tuesday, raising questions about how feasible that is with snow still piled along sidewalks.

Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella said school should remain closed, while Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, described the situation as “a big mess.”

“There's going to be low attendance of students. You're going to have low attendance of staff because people don't know if they can travel, if they can get to schools," he said.

Spokespersons for Mamdani didn’t respond to an email seeking comment but his schools chief, Chancellor Kamar Samuels, said in a post on X, that they were "confident in our decision to reopen."

Philadelphia switched to online learning Monday and Tuesday. Districts on Long Island and elsewhere in the New York suburbs said they would cancel school again Tuesday.

The National Weather Service said it's tracking another storm that could bring more snow to the region later this week.

While the new storm is not expected to be as strong, even a few extra inches of snow on top of hard-hit areas could make cleanup more difficult, said Frank Pereira, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.

“Any additional snow at this point is probably not going to be welcome,” he said.

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, occurring mainly in the fall and winter when frigid Arctic air can reach the south and clash with warmer temperatures.

More than 2,000 flights in and out of the United States 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 paused its airport operations Monday as it dealt with nearly 38 inches (97 centimeters) of snow, according to the Weather Service, breaking a record set in 1978.

Central Park in New York City recorded 19 inches (48 centimeters) of snow. Warwick, Rhode Island, exceeded 3 feet (91 centimeters), topping the nation so far. The highest wind gust of 83 mph (134 kph) was recorded in Nantucket, with hurricane-force gusts seen all over Cape Cod.

New York, Philadelphia and other cities, as well as several states, declared emergencies.

The Boston Globe management called off printing its daily newspaper for the first time in its more than 150-year history because snow and winds kept staff from safely getting to its printing plant, the newspaper said in an article on its website.

In the New York City-area, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Monday evening that subway lines are mostly operational after earlier delays, with the exception of the hard-hit borough of Staten Island, where rail service remained suspended.

Commuter rail service to suburbs to the north and east of the city were expected to resume limited service ahead of the Tuesday morning commute, the MTA said.

Christa Prince and two others were out in Brooklyn on Monday afternoon with shovels and an electric snowblower.

“We’re just making a path for this car," Prince said. "It’s not our car but you know, we’re just doing our neighbor a kind deed."

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Izaguirre reported from Albany, New York. Associated Press writers Mike Catalini in Morrisville, Pennsylvania; Mark Kennedy and Mike Sisak in New York; Darlene Superville in Washington; Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; Philip Marcelo in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.