US travel headaches continue after ‘Snowpocalypse’
Australia urges help for ‘unprecedented’ floods
There was more travel chaos yesterday in the US northeast after hundreds of flights were cancelled and the region dug out from what some are calling “Snowpocalypse
The frustration for travellers remained after one of the biggest blizzards in years, which slammed much of the eastern seaboard from the Carolinas into Canada’s Maritime provinces.
The system, packing enormous snowfalls and gales left piles of snow as deep as 80 centimetres that created havoc for travellers, especially those flying.
Airlines resumed limited service, but some 800 flights were cancelled on Tuesday, mostly in the New York area, which was spinning its wheels following the storm that roared up the coast on Sunday and on Monday. Snow plows and salt spreaders were seen struggling in Manhattan, battling through knee-high snow in many streets.
Officials expect it will take several days for New York and its all-important transport hubs to be fully back on track following the sixth heaviest snowfall in the city’s history.
“This storm is not like any other we’ve had to deal with,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, noting that emergency vehicles were among those stuck in the snow.
“Until we can pull out the ambulances, pull out the fire trucks, pull out the buses, pull out the private cars, the plows just can’t do anything,” he said. “We still have a long way to go.
New York police have removed some 1,000 vehicles from just three busily-trafficked thoroughfares, a fraction of the stalled vehicles stranded on city roads.
The three major area airports – John F. Kennedy International, LaGuardia and Newark International in New Jersey – reopened late on Monday, but the cancellations of thousands of flights meant a huge backlog and more delays.
New reports said heavy winds caused an accident at Maine’s Sugarloaf Mountain ski resort, where several people were hospitalised.
Meanwhile, Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard yesterday warned “unprecedented” flooding would worsen after entire towns were cut off and soldiers airlifted hundreds of people from north-eastern towns.
Drenching rains unleashed by a tropical cyclone have left vast tracts of the state of Queensland under water, with 1,000 evacuations and 38 regions declared natural disaster areas.
Ms Gillard launched a public appeal for relief funds, pledging one million dollars of government money to help those hit by the “particularly devastating” deluge.