Blizzard maroons thousands at US airports

A howling blizzard slammed US Northeast on Sunday with more than 2 feet of snow and hurricane-strength wind gusts, halting air travel for thousands of people, keeping others off slippery highways and burying parked cars under deep drifts.

Governors in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island declared states of emergency.

Over 3 feet fell in some places north of Boston, parts of New Hampshire got 2 feet, New York's Catskills collected at least 20 inches and 18 inches fell on parts of Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island and the eastern tip of New York's Long Island.

Two communities in Massachusetts, Salem and Plymouth, tied for the deepest snow with 38 inches each, according to the National Weather Service.

The weather system had earlier piled a foot of snow across parts of Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and northern Ohio.

Although the snow ended by Sunday afternoon, temperatures were expected to reach zero in some areas Sunday night, with wind chills dropping as low as minus 15. The wind was fierce across much of the East Coast, with a top wind gust of 152 miles per hour recorded on Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina.

At least 14 deaths were linked to the weather: three in Connecticut, three in Ohio, three in Wisconsin, two in Pennsylvania, and one each in Maryland, Iowa and Massachusetts.

Wind gusted to 84 mph on Nantucket, and the entire island off the southeast coast of Massachusetts was plunged into darkness Sunday as 9,400 utility customers lost power. On the mainland, some 18,000 customers lost power, the utility NStar said. Smaller outages were reported elsewhere around the Northeast.

Elise DelBarone, a spokeswoman for Massachusetts Electric, said power on Nantucket was nearly restored Sunday afternoon when a problem with the undersea cable connecting the island to the mainland was fixed.

Still, officials said up to 100 residents were staying at a shelter set up at a high school. Rescue crews were also trying to reach people at risk in outlying areas cut off by snow drifts up to 6 feet high.

Because the wind blowing off the ocean coincided with a full moon and high tide, coastal communities were warned of flooding.

More than 900 flights were canceled Sunday morning at the New York metropolitan area's Newark, Kennedy and LaGuardia airports, in addition to about 700 that were grounded Saturday, Port Authority officials said.

Philadelphia's airport was open again Sunday, after a shutdown and flight cancellations on Saturday stranded hundreds of travelers at the terminal overnight, but more than 70 departures were canceled. Nearly 1,300 flights were canceled from Friday through Sunday at Chicago's O'Hare International.

For others, the storm brought ideal conditions for skiing, snowboarding and sledding.

Source: Agencies(abridged)