Jan. 25, 2016 Washington D.C. struggles to recover from winter blizzard House of Representatives will remain closed al

Jan. 25, 2016

Washington D.C. struggles to recover from winter blizzard

House of Representatives will remain closed all week as US capital deals with 22 inches of snow

اقتباس :: People take part in the snowball fight on Dupont Circle in Washington, DC. Snowball fights have become a tradition after every major snow storm in the American capital. Photo: AFP

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By AFP
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The eastern United States emerged wearily from a massive blizzard that dumped huge amounts of snow and killed at least 25 people, but Washington was still reeling, with government offices and schools to remain closed on Monday.
The storm - dubbed "Snowzilla" - walloped a dozen states from Friday into early Sunday, affecting an estimated 85 million residents who were told to stay indoors and off the roads for their own safety.
The 26.8 inches (68 centimeters) of snow that fell in New York's Central Park was the second-highest accumulation since records began in 1869, and more than 22 inches paralysed the capital Washington.

اقتباس :: A pair of deck chairs sit in the backyard of a home in the Woodridge neighbourhood in Northeast Washington, DC Photo: EPA/DREW ANGERER

Near-record-breaking snowfall was recorded in other cities up and down the East Coast, with Philadelphia and Baltimore also on the receiving end of some of the worst that Mother Nature could fling at them.
But as the storm ended and temperatures rose, New York emerged from total shutdown and lifted a sweeping travel ban. Roads were reopened throughout the city, on Long Island and in New Jersey.
Thousands of people flocked to parks, tobogganing, organizing snowball fights and strapping on cross-country skis, as children delighted in a winter wonderland under glorious sunshine.
Limited flight operations were to resume from Washington's Reagan National and Dulles International airports on Monday, a day after officials battled in New York to get some aircraft off the ground.
The House of Representatives opted also to remain out of session for the coming week due to the severity of the winter storm and related travel woes - with no votes set until February 1.
Muriel Bowser, Mayor of Washington, said while there had been "a lot of progress" Sunday, there would be no trash collection on Monday and Tuesday, and urged people to keep vehicles off the roads for at least another 24 hours.
"We expect that with the temperature dropping tonight and for every night this week, that we will see continued slick and dangerous roadways," she told a news conference.
"We want to have tomorrow to continue to keep cars off the road so that we can clear those major arteries and also clear the places where many people who come to our downtown would normally park."

اقتباس :: Children sled down a home-made sledding hill on Belt Street in the Friendship Heights neighbourhood in Washington, DC Photo: EPA/JIM LO SCALZO

Beyond the Big Apple and the US capital, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia were the hardest-hit areas. A few locations surpassed one-day and two-day snow records, said the National Weather Service.
The fatalities occurred in Arkansas, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia.
In New Jersey, Chris Christie, a Republican presidential contender who left the campaign trail to oversee the emergency response in the state he governs, asked people to take care.
"This is very heavy snow so I ask that they please be careful as they clean up their own property today or their businesses," he said.
Many of the storm-related deaths were people who suffered heart attacks while shoveling.
Hundreds of thousands were left without power at the height of the storm, including nearly 150,000 outages in North Carolina alone, emergency officials said.