Northeast digging out after huge snowstorm

Theo Emery

Monday, Jan. 24, 2005 | 11:06 a.m.

BOSTON -- The city's airport partially reopened today but schools and courthouses were closed in many areas as the Northeast struggled to recover from the weekend's blizzard.

The storm dumped more than 3 feet of snow on Massachusetts, and drifts were piled up to the eaves of some one-story buildings.

Frustrated travelers waited for transportation after a weekend in which hundreds of airline flights were canceled.

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney asked nonessential state workers in the eastern part of the state not to come to work, and Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri closed all state and municipal offices today. School closings were reported from Maine to parts of Virginia.

At least 15 deaths were linked to the weather: three in Connecticut, three in Ohio, three in Wisconsin, two in Pennsylvania, and one each in Maryland, Delaware, Iowa and Massachusetts.

States of emergency were declared in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey.

Among those whose court appearances were delayed: "Survivor" star Richard Hatch, who had faced arraignment in Rhode Island in a tax case, and defrocked priest Paul Shanley, who faced trial on abuse charges in Boston.

On Massachusetts' Nantucket island, where an 84 mph wind gust was reported, the storm plunged the entire island into darkness until most service was restored Sunday night. The island's fire department worked to reach people at risk in areas cut off by drifts up to 6 feet high.

"We just don't have the equipment to handle that amount of snow," said Nantucket deputy fire chief Mark McDougall.

Two eastern Massachusetts communities -- Salem and Plymouth -- got 38 inches of snow each, according to the National Weather Service. Parts of New Hampshire got 2 feet, New York's Catskills collected at least 20 inches and more than a foot fell in parts of New Jersey. Earlier, the weather system had piled a foot of snow across parts of Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and northern Ohio.

Boston's Logan International Airport was shut down for nearly 30 hours until crews were able to reopen one runway at 8 a.m. today.

More than 900 flights were canceled Sunday morning at the New York metropolitan area's Newark, Kennedy and LaGuardia airports, in addition to about 700 that were grounded Saturday, Port Authority officials said.

Philadelphia's airport reopened Sunday, after a shutdown and flight cancellations on Saturday stranded hundreds of travelers. Airport spokesman Mark Pesce said about 15 percent of arrivals and departures were canceled this morning.

Chicago's O'Hare International was nearly back to normal with only one flight canceled today, and that was because of delays on the East Coast, said spokeswoman Annette Martinez.

A spokeswoman for McCarran International Airport said she did not have an exact count on the number of flights that were affected by the storm, but said there were more than 10 cancellations Saturday and at least one on Sunday.

Spokeswoman Elaine Sanchez said there were several other delays on flights originating from or connecting to East Coast destinations.

"We always encourage people to call their airlines to check on the status of their flights, but when there's a storm, it's even more important to do that," Sanchez said.

Each airline has its own information on reticketing on available flights or rebooking if a flight is canceled, she said.

A spokesman for America West Airlines, the No. 2 commercial passenger carrier at McCarran, said today that on Saturday, there were 70 storm-related flight cancellations of the airline's 887 operations, including 18 that affected flights to or from McCarran. And, on Sunday, there were 40 systemwide storm-related cancellations, 13 affecting Las Vegas flights. One of those weather cancellations involved heavy fog conditions in Reno and not the East Coast storm.

A representative of Southwest Airlines could not be reached for comment this morning on how many of its Las Vegas flights were affected by the storm. America West and Southwest operate 62.5 percent of McCarran's flights.

About 40 percent of the seats coming into the Las Vegas market are on long-haul flights east of the Mississippi River.