Storm howls its way into New England

New Englanders hit by a storm packing knee-high snowfall and hurricane-force winds began digging out on Wednesday as some New Yorkers and others spared its full fury questioned whether forecasts were overblown.

The storm was a bitter, paralyzing blast to New England, bringing at least half a meter of snow to most of Massachusetts, potentially making it one of the top snowstorms of all time there. It began on Monday evening and continued most of Tuesday. A blizzard warning for Boston ended on Tuesday evening as the snow tapered off, but one remained in effect for the south coast, Cape Cod and nearby islands.

The area was also dealing with bitter cold: The low in Boston on Wednesday is expected to be - 13 C, and forecasters said it would not get above freezing for the next week or so.

In New York, forecasters apologized for their predictions of a possible historic storm, and politicians defended their near-total shutdown on travel. Some residents grumbled about the forecasts being overblown, but others sounded a better-safe-than-sorry note and even expressed sympathy for the meteorologists.

Forecasters originally warned the storm could bring up to a meter of snow and punishing hurricane-force winds. But on Tuesday they downgraded most of those numbers, saying Boston and the northeastern New England region would fare the worst, but even then not as bad as expected.

Statewide ban

The Boston area had more than 30 centimeters of snow, while the far eastern tip of New York's suburban Long Island had more than half a meter. Snowplow operators around New England struggled to keep up, and Boston police drove several dozen doctors and nurses to work at hospitals.

The National Weather Service said a 125 km/h gust was reported on Nantucket, and a 115 km/h one on Martha's Vineyard.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie defended his statewide ban on travel as "absolutely the right decision to make" in light of the dire forecast.

As the storm pushed into the Northeast on Monday, the region came to a near standstill, alarmed by forecasters' dire predictions. More than 7,700 flights were canceled, and schools, businesses and government offices closed.

As dawn broke, New York had an almost eerie feel to it. No airplanes in the sky and no trains running underground made for an unexpected quiet. A few municipal trucks rumbled down empty streets.

But as the storm pushed northward, it tracked farther east than forecasters had been expecting, and conditions improved quickly in its wake. By midmorning on Tuesday, New Jersey and New York City lifted driving bans, and subways and trains started rolling again, with a return to a full schedule expected on Wednesday.

A National Weather Service forecaster in New Jersey apologized on Twitter for the off-target forecast.

"You made a lot of tough decisions expecting us to get it right, and we didn't. Once again, I'm sorry," Gary Szatkowski tweeted.

AP - Reuters - Xinhua