US shakes off blizzard but still in grip of travel misery

THE US north-east began yesterday to shake off the grip of one of the biggest blizzards in years, but beleaguered travellers faced another day of headaches in New York airports.

After one last night of ferocious winds, the storm had moved fully out of New York by early yesterday. The system, packing enormous snowfalls and gale force winds, churned up through Maine and into Canada, leaving a cold trail as far south down the east coast as the Carolinas.

The lifting of the siege meant that New York, the hardest hit area in the blizzard beginning Sunday, could finally start getting back to normal. Snow ploughs and salt spreaders were hard at work before dawn in Manhattan, battling through knee-high snow in many streets.