UPDATED. One of the worst snowstorms to hit the US Eastern seaboard closed all the major airports in New York, Washington and Philadelphia airports yesterday, with more than 7,000 flights cancelled on Friday night through Saturday and several thousand more expected today into Monday.

 

‘Storm Jonas’ is the cause, delivering a near record level of 26 inches of snow in just 36 hours and tragically claiming 20 lives.

 

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has subsequently confirmed that most airline services at the airports of New York JFK and La Guardia are expected to be cancelled today, as are other airports, such as Baltimore and Philadelphia, which are also struggling.

 

Over in Washington, both Reagan National and Dulles International have also been hit badly. When they finally open their doors today it is looking virtually certain that there will be many more cancellations while runways remain covered in snow and ice.

 

This is alongside the huge problem that passengers also have in physically reaching the airports due to the adverse road and rail conditions. This situation was so bad last night that Governor Cuomo and the Mayor of New York Bill de Blasio took the unprecedented step of telling all citizens to stay at home until 07.00am today (Sunday, New York time).

 

 

This effective ‘no road travel order or curfew’ was imposed on vehicles to allow snow ploughs to do their work and this has now been lifted, although there are still problems travelling by road and rail to the airports where planes remain grounded.

 

The following statement from Washington Dulles Airport management just about summed up the situation at press-time on Sunday morning at 11.15am (central European time). It stated: “Dulles International Airport continues to experience significant snowfall and high winds, forecast through the early morning hours on Sunday, making snow removal on the runways, roadways and parking lots difficult.

 

 

“Coupled with the continued closure through the weekend of roads and public transportation in surrounding communities, these conditions make resumption of normal flight operations at the airport unlikely on Sunday. Passengers should contact their airline directly for specific flight information and to re-book any flights if necessary.

 

“Our priority is protecting the safety of passengers and employees who will travel to the airports when flights resume.

 

“Snow teams have been working, and will continue to work, around the clock at both airports to remove snow from runways, taxiways, gates and roadways. We will continue to evaluate conditions and if the runways can be safely opened sooner we will do so.”