Schools and airlines catch up as snowstorm dies out

SOME schools stayed closed yesterday and airlines struggled to catch up as the US north-east plowed out after the powerful weekend snowstorm that piled snow nearly four feet deep in places.

“It’s not unique but it is unusual that we would have a December snowstorm that would yield this amount of snow,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Charlie Foley.

Thirteen deaths were linked to the storm.

A few snow flurries lingered in northern Maine yesterday morning but the storm, which started blowing up the Eastern Seaboard on Friday, had moved out into the Atlantic east of Nova Scotia, the National Weather Service said.

Ten high school students and two adults were missing on a weekend hiking and camping trip in western Maine. A Maine game warden pilot searched from the air yesterday morning for the hikers, who left Friday and were due back Sunday.

In some places, snow fell for more than 36 hours.

Yesterday, however, the sky was clearing. The forecast for eastern Massachusetts was “abundant sunshine” and temperatures near 30 degrees. Farther south, highs in the mid-30s were forecast for the New York City area.

In addition to snow, flooding was a problem in some coastal areas where the storm’s high wind drove waves onto shore and over seawalls.

As the snow melted, some other areas were warned of a chance of light flooding because of poor drainage and snow-clogged sewers.

Lines were long at Boston's Logan International Airport, which was still operating with one runway yesterday instead of its usual two.

Travellers waited at check-ins and at security stations Monday. Some people had ben waiting for a flight since the snow began falling Saturday.

There were no more delays yesterday at the New York City area’s Kennedy, La Guardia and Newark airports, but flights from La Guardia to Boston were cancelled because of Logan’s problems.

During the weekend, hundreds of flights had to be cancelled at Logan, Philadelphia, Kennedy, La Guardia and Newark airports.