A winter storm that froze the US south east in its tracks pushed north yesterday, with driving winds and heavy snow snarling travel and closing many schools from Washington to Connecticut, creating havoc for winter-weary parents.
Hundreds of thousands of Georgia, North and South Carolina residents hit by a heavy blast of ice a day earlier remained without power as the storm made its way up the coast, closing much of Washington and threatening to drop up to 45 cm of snow in some areas.
The repeated storms are taking a toll on schools and families, as snow-related cancellations left parents scrambling to find child-care options and administrators looking at making up lost days by extending classes into the summer.
New York City Public Schools, which have taken only one snow day this year, proved a glaring exception and remained open.
One of the toughest storms that North Carolina has seen in decades
Jane Mills, who was walking with her six-year-old granddaughter in Brooklyn, said it was “absolutely ridiculous” that public schools were open.
“It’s a danger to the students travelling in buses or cars. It’s a danger to teachers commuting,” said Mills, a former teacher from Nashville, Tennessee.
About 5,771 domestic US flights were cancelled and another 1,235 were delayed yesterday, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.com.
About 1,000 people spent the night on cots and mats at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, the airport said. Across the state in Durham, motorists stuck in traffic that resembled the gridlock mess in Atlanta two weeks ago found refuge for the night at a mall.
“This is one of the toughest storms North Carolina has seen in decades,” Governor Pat McCrory told WSOC-TV.
The storm system, which has dumped heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain from eastern Texas to the Carolinas since Tuesday, was blamed for at least 15 deaths in the South.
The decision to keep New York City schools open drew criticism from teachers and some parents, who said it was unwise to expect children to travel in dangerous conditions.
“Having students, parents and staff traveling in these conditions was unwarranted,” said United Federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew. “It was a mistake to open schools today.”
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio defended the decision, saying the city was not facing the kind of overwhelming snow that would make it impossible for kids to get to school.
“It would be very, very easy to call off school constantly,” he said. “It is our obligation to run the school system. We have a state mandate to reach a number of school days.”
Many other districts kept students home. Philadelphia closed schools for its 135,000 students for the fifth time yesterday.