Jan 28, 2011
NEW YORK - NEW YORK shut down two airports and most city services on Thursday in the wake of a rare thunder-snow storm that paralysed air and ground travel over a vast area from Washington to as far north as Boston.
After building up early on Wednesday with ice and freezing rain, the storm blindsided the US capital at the height of the evening rush hour, not even sparing President Barack Obama, who faced travel delays upon returning from a day trip to the US Mid-west.
In New York, John F. Kennedy Airport and Newark Airport in New Jersey were closed for almost 12 hours as the storm, simultaneously erupting with lightening and thunder, blanketed the region in more than 30cm of snow.
They reopened later on Thursday, but with long delays as airlines worked their way through huge backlogs of cancelled flights and miserable passengers.
Similar snarl-ups developed at Philadelphia and New York's La Guardia airports, although the situation was back to normal at Washington's Dulles and Reagan National.
The storm, an unusual thunder and snow combination, was the fifth major snowfall in as many weeks for parts of the US east coast. For New York City, this has been the most snow-filled January in history, with a total of 90cm breaking the record set 1925. -- AFP
source: www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_629186.html
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