The storm posed the first major challenge to Bill de Blasio, the newly elected mayor of New York.
De Blasio said nearly 2,500 snow plows were on the streets of the biggest US city as of early yesterday, with the top accumulations 16.5 centimetres. De Blasio posted a photo of himself on his Twitter feed, shovelling the walk in front of his Brooklyn brownstone. He urged New Yorkers to stay home, saying, “This has been and remains a dangerous storm.”
Some New Yorkers grumbled about the city’s response.
“I’m sure mayor de Blasio is doing what he can, but a lot of the streets haven’t been cleared at all and I’m not too happy about that,” said Anesha Jones, 26, as she walked through Brooklyn to her job as a bank teller. She added that bus and subway delays added an hour to her regular commute.
Others took the storm in stride.
“It’s winter. It snowed. It happens,” said Mark Kulpa as he shovelled a sidewalk outside his Brooklyn workplace. He said the response was better than a Christmas 2010 blizzard, where then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg came under heavy criticism for the city’s slow response while he was out of town on vacation.
“At least they are out plowing and spreading salt. That’s already a step up,” Kulpa said. “But really, what can you say in two days and just after a big storm?”
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the storm had little impact on New York City’s transportation network, but blizzard-like conditions meant rail service on Long Island would run on weekend schedules.
In Massachusetts, 3,338 crews were clearing roads, with 999 working on the heavily hit North Shore district alone, the state Department of Transportation said.
In Boston, downtown was sparsely populated, with many workers heeding Governor Deval Patrick’s suggestion to stay home and avoid travelling on icy roadways.
The heaviest snowfall came north of Boston, where the towns of Boxford and Topsfield, about 39 kilometres away, each saw close to two feet (60 cm) of accumulation.
In Washington, the Office of Personnel Management told hundreds of thousands of workers they could work from home or take unscheduled leave because of the storm.
A city worker in Philadelphia was killed after a machine he was using was crushed by a mound of de-icing rock salt, NBC News reported. In Chicago, a man was in critical condition after being pulled out of an icy Lake Michigan by fire fighters.
Massachusetts officials were also watching for possible coastal flooding in communities including the wealthy town of Scituate, located about 48 kilometres south of Boston, and parts of the Cape Cod beach resort areas.
Some residents of low-lying areas evacuated their homes overnight ahead of the last high tide.