North-eastern US digs out from record snowstorm

ROAD crews scrambled to clear highways for commuters yesterday and thousands of travellers stranded at airports still waited to get home as the north-eastern states dug out from a record-breaking storm that dumped 60cm or more of snow.

Hundreds of schools cancelled Monday classes from West Virginia to Massachusetts. Utility crews worked to restore power to thousands of homes and businesses blacked out when wind gusting to 50mph knocked down power lines.

The weekend storm blanketed the Eastern Seaboard and Appalachians from western North Carolina to Maine, dropping 68cm of snow in New York’s Central Park - the heaviest since records began in 1869, the National Weather Service said. The old record was 67cm in December 1947.