PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Residents throughout the mid-Atlantic and Northeast who had mostly holed up during the fierce weekend storm that dropped record snowfall and stranded travelers dug out Sunday from as much as 2 feet of snow to find sunny, mostly calm skies.
To the south, others struggled with the aftermath of the storm that stranded hundreds of drivers in Virginia and knocked out power to thousands, but could have been much worse.
On the cusp of the winter solstice, the storm dropped 16 inches of snow Saturday on Reagan National Airport outside Washington - the most ever recorded there for a single December day - and gave southern New Jersey its highest single-storm snowfall totals in nearly four years.
The National Weather Service said the storm gave Philadelphia, which began keeping records in 1884, its second-largest snowfall: 23.2 inches. Even more was recorded in the Philadelphia suburb of Medford, N.J., at 24 inches.
The 13.4 inches that fell Sunday at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, just south of Providence, easily eclipsed the date’s previous record - 6.3 inches in 1995, accordingto the weather service.
Around New York City, the brunt of the storm hit Long Island, with whiteout conditions and 26.3 inches in Upton, a record since measurements began in 1949. Nearly 11 inches of snow fell on New York City, and the storm could be the worst the city has seen since about 26 inches fell in February 2006, National Weather Service meteorologist Patrick Maloit said.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg encouraged residents and Christmas visitors to take advantage of cancellations by seeing a Broadway show. The mayor said city retailers weren’t hard hit because the snow held off until late Saturday.
Even as the storm wound down in the New York area, conditions remained treacherous and drivers were advised to stay off the roads, Maloit said. Buses, subways and trains were delayed - including a Long Island Rail Road train that was stalled for more than five hours before its crew backed it up and unloaded its 150 passengers.
Airports in the Northeast that were jammed up Saturday were working their way back to normal operations. About 1,200 flights at the New York City area’s three major airports remained canceled despite clear conditions on the runways.
By Sunday morning, one runway at Dulles International Airport in Washington was open, handling arriving flights, spokesman Tara Hamilton said. At Reagan National, crews were still moving “huge quantities of snow” in the hopes of opening the airport by midday.
Baltimore-Washington airport struggled to get back up to full speed, with some airlines still canceling flights. At Boston’s Logan airport, where it was still snowing Sunday morning, spokesman Phil Orlandella said flights have been “on and off.” Today looked to be a normal day, he said.
Philadelphia International Airport shut down Saturday night but began to reopen early Sunday, spokesman Phyllis Van Istendal said.
Al Wachlin, 70, lives in Philadelphia but grew up in Maine and was well prepared for the storm, with a truck and an attached plow. With a scraper in one hand and a brush in another, he worked to clear off his truck.
“This part of it’s great,” said Wachlin, who has lived in the city since 1960. “It’s the cleanup, the rutted streets where you go sliding into the intersection, that’s the whole problem.”
Some states reported major power failures. An estimated 200,000 electric customers remained without power Sunday in West Virginia and Virginia.
In many places the problem was where to put the snow. On south Philadelphia’s narrow streets, passing automobiles threw freshly shoveled snow back onto sidewalks residents had just shoveled.
Merchants feared they would take a hit as the storm blew through on the last weekend before Christmas. Shoppers who did venture out made the most of it.
“I came out because I knew there’d be no crowds around,” said James Phyfe, 35, of Cranston, R.I., whose gift-buying included a toy soccer ball for his toddler son.
In Washington, police investigated the case of a plainclothes officer who drew a gun during a snowball fight organized on Twitter. Witness Lacy MacAuley told The Washington Post the fight was harmless fun until the officer arrived.
The storm began wreaking misery Friday in South Florida, where rain caused flooding; the storm knocked out electricity in the Carolinas before it turned to snow as it moved north.
One person in Virginia was killed in a traffic accident, and authorities said the weather may have contributed to another traffic death there. A third death in Virginia is believed to have been caused by exposure. In Ohio, two people were killed in accidents on snow-covered roads. And in western North Carolina, a 52-year-old man was killed when his car slid down an embankment.
Information for this article was contributed by Geoff Mulvihill, Sarah Karush, Dena Potter, Jacob Jordan, David Porter, Bruce Shipkowski, Ron Todt, Patrick Walters and Jacquelyn Martin of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/21/2009