Massive winter storm slams US northeast

Thousands of flights canceled as wind, snow wreak havoc

The fiercest snowstorm of the winter slammed the northeastern United States on Thursday, leaving 30 centimeters of snow in places, canceling thousands of flights and shutting down schools.

At least two deaths were blamed on the storm. which came a day after temperatures were a spring-like 10C to 16C, but wind gusts up to 80 km/h left roads and sidewalks dangerously slick in densely populated cities such as New York, Boston and Hartford, Connecticut.

The winds reached as far south as Virginia, where a truck driver died after his tractor-trailer was blown off the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, Tom Anderson, the facility's deputy director, said in a phone interview.

A New York City doorman died while shoveling snow as he slipped and fell down a flight of stairs, crashing into a window that cut his neck, police reported.

Some areas experienced "thunder snow", violent bursts of weather featuring both snow and lightning.

Nearly two-thirds of the flights into or out of the three major New York-area airports were canceled, as were 69 percent of those at Boston's Logan International Airport, according to the Flightaware.com website.

Nationwide, about 4,000 flights were canceled and 5,700 delayed.

"The roads are dangerous," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters. "I don't care if you have a four-wheel-drive car and you think you're a super hero. If you don't have to be out, don't be out."

David Hassan, 50, attested to the ugliness of the weather as he packed up his mobile coffee cart in New York's Times Square.

"I don't like coming out in this weather but I have three kids going to school and I have to work," Hassan said as he prepared for the two-hour trip back to his home in Parsippany, New Jersey.

New York received about 30 cm of snow, while Boston was braced for up to 50 cm.

Many schools systems were closed in the area, and Boston schools remained closed on Friday, Mayor Marty Walsh said.

Many government offices also were shuttered with Massachusetts and Connecticut ordering nonemergency workers to stay home.

Reuters - AP