Blizzard brings northeastern US to a standstill
Regan Kelly
Airlines have cancelled thousands of flights and delayed 900 as parts of the northeastern US battle through this recent winter blizzard.
The ‘bomb cyclone’ hit major cities like New York, bringing much of the area to a standstill, forcing schools to close and public transport to be cancelled.
In Providence, Rhode Island, records have been broken, with the city sitting under 32 inches of snow.
Both Philadelphia and Boston received 14 inches, while New York City recorded more than 19 inches.
Additionally, the winds were extremely strong, reaching speeds of up to 100 kilometres per hour.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged residents of the city to stay off the streets so that emergency services could help clear the streets.
As these areas have come to a standstill, many residents are unable to make it to work and are forced to stay at home.
We spoke to one of those residents, Westmeath man Gerry Browne, who left Ireland for New York in the 80s, now residing in Croton-on-Hudson, an hour from the city.
Gerry, like most residents in the area, was snowed in: “We have seen a lot of storms here over the years, but this one is definitely up there among the top ten since I've been here.
“I have seen worse, but this one came out of nowhere. On Tuesday last week, we were only supposed to get an inch or two, and then it all changed towards Friday, and it was like Armageddon.”
Gerry discussed what it's been like in New York state and what he has been seeing so far.
“Last time I looked out the window, there was about 18 inches of snow, but there are really high winds, so there is a lot of drifting and stuff. It could be worse; some other areas have had up to two feet.
“We will be fine, though. We had something similar around 10 years ago, and we had a lot of snow a few weeks back as well.”
As it came on very quickly, this blizzard may have caught people off guard and it may be hard to cope with it.
Gerry spoke about how his area is coping so far. He said: “Today, we couldn't do anything, because they shut all the streets down, closing everything.
“They closed everything around 10pm the night before and won't reopen it again until around 12 or 1 o'clock the next day.
“That’s a good thing, it gives them a chance to clean everything up, so hopefully everything will be back to normal soon enough.”
For someone who has been along the eastern coast of the US for many years, Gerry would have seen some bad winters.
He described the worst one he has ever witnessed: “The worst one I've ever seen was back around 1996 or 1997, where we had 27 or 28 inches of snow.
“This shut everything down for around a week; there was no traffic on the roads, everyone was walking in the middle of the road, and there was snow everywhere.
“You couldn’t even find your car; it was buried under the snow. We survived that one, so we will survive this one.”
For many in the northeastern US, this blizzard may be frightening, not to mention very disruptive to their lives, but as time goes on, they will slowly return to normal.
Hopefully, very soon, most people can get back to normal and enjoy their daily routines once again.