John
12-28-2010, 10:01 AM
Airports in the New York City area have reopened after four times the usual December snowfall was dumped in one day.
New York's three major airports - JFK, LaGuardia and Newark - got back up and running early today, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The airports closed after a storm which started on Sunday drove snow, gale force winds and lightning across the northeast US, leaving thousands of people marooned.
But passengers are still expected to face severe delays to their journeys because of the backlog of flights and the clear-up operation.
"Some 4,500 flights have not taken off the past two days and it will take two to three days to take care of those people and get back to some sense of normalcy," Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said.
Eric Schorr, 22, who has been stranded at JFK since December 26 said: "People are exhausted - they want to get home."
New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked people to avoid travelling if at all possible.
He told people "to stay home and enjoy their families".
He also went on to defend the city's clean-up effort, saying: "The furious pace of the snowfall, two to three inches per hour, required crews to plough streets repeatedly.
"It's being handled by the best professionals in the business and it really is inconvenient for a lot of people."
Stranded passengers could not leave airports even if they wanted to - heavy snow had left alternative travel routes at a standstill.
The storm covered the streets of New York with up to two feet of snow, paralysed bus and train services and saw cab drivers abandoning their taxis.
Disgruntled foreigners stranded at airports have already voiced their woes about facilities during the blizzard.
"The airports had promised to put passengers up at hotels overnight but we waited for the shuttle buses to take us there," Yoann Uzan, from France, said.
"And then the buses couldn't get through because of the weather, so we were stuck here."
Hundreds of musicians scheduled to perform at London's 25th New Year's Day parade are also among the victims of the blizzard and feared they would not arrive in Britain in time.
Source - Yahoo News.
New York's three major airports - JFK, LaGuardia and Newark - got back up and running early today, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The airports closed after a storm which started on Sunday drove snow, gale force winds and lightning across the northeast US, leaving thousands of people marooned.
But passengers are still expected to face severe delays to their journeys because of the backlog of flights and the clear-up operation.
"Some 4,500 flights have not taken off the past two days and it will take two to three days to take care of those people and get back to some sense of normalcy," Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said.
Eric Schorr, 22, who has been stranded at JFK since December 26 said: "People are exhausted - they want to get home."
New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked people to avoid travelling if at all possible.
He told people "to stay home and enjoy their families".
He also went on to defend the city's clean-up effort, saying: "The furious pace of the snowfall, two to three inches per hour, required crews to plough streets repeatedly.
"It's being handled by the best professionals in the business and it really is inconvenient for a lot of people."
Stranded passengers could not leave airports even if they wanted to - heavy snow had left alternative travel routes at a standstill.
The storm covered the streets of New York with up to two feet of snow, paralysed bus and train services and saw cab drivers abandoning their taxis.
Disgruntled foreigners stranded at airports have already voiced their woes about facilities during the blizzard.
"The airports had promised to put passengers up at hotels overnight but we waited for the shuttle buses to take us there," Yoann Uzan, from France, said.
"And then the buses couldn't get through because of the weather, so we were stuck here."
Hundreds of musicians scheduled to perform at London's 25th New Year's Day parade are also among the victims of the blizzard and feared they would not arrive in Britain in time.
Source - Yahoo News.