US storm strands travellers

In Monmouth County,New Jersey,state troopers carried water and food to diabetics marooned on two passenger buses carrying about 50 people on the Garden State Parkway,where stranded cars cluttering ramps stymied snow plows and ambulances,state police spokesman Steve Jones told NBC’s Today show.

In New York City,hundreds of travellers dozed Monday in Long Island Rail Road train cars frozen at the platform. Hours went by without a single train leaving with passengers.

Buses were knocked out as well,cabs were little more than a myth and those who tried walking out of the station were assailed with a hard,frigid wind that made snowflakes sting like needles.

In Philadelphia,cab driver Farid Senoussaoui,33,described navigating the slippery conditions as “like a video game.”

In New England,many commuters appeared to be heeding the call to stay off the roads. In greater Boston,highways into the city were nearly abandoned early Monday as many workers were given the day off and others were on vacation for the holiday week.

The blizzard-like conditions wreaked havoc on travellers on the East Coast. Airlines scrambled to rebook passengers on thousands of cancelled flights — more than 1,400 out of the New York City area’s three major airports alone — but said they didn’t expect service to resume until Tuesday. Amtrak cancelled train service from New York to Maine after doing the same for several trains in Virginia.

New York City’s John F Kennedy and LaGuardia airports remain closed Monday,as was New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport.