From Washington to Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, cities largely ground to a halt with governments shut down, public transport scaled back, thousands of flights canceled and some highways closed as snow and powerful winds created whiteout conditions.
Federal government agencies in the Washington area were ordered to remain closed today for a fourth straight day, a move that costs an estimated $100 million per day in lost productivity.
The United Nations in New York was closed yesterday. But Wall Street and many other businesses plowed on, and one brokerage house, J.P. Morgan Chase, offered cots in conference rooms for workers if they got stuck at the office.
“I was as excited as all the school kids when I found out the U.N. was having a snow day. But I don’t really get the day off, I am still working from home,” said Stephanie Dunstan, 33, an Australian who works for the U.N. Development Program.
The snow dampened Wall Street trading and was also partly blamed for poor demand at a $25 billion U.S. bond auction.
“People are focusing on how they’re getting home because of the snow,” said Jeffrey Frankel, president of Stuart Frankel & Co in New York, describing it as “a very dull” stock market.
The National Weather Service said Washington’s winter snowfall broke a 110-year-old record with Wednesday’s blizzard setting a new mark of 54.9 inches (139.4 cm). Baltimore also set a seasonal record and news reports indicated Philadelphia did too.
“What we’ve seen today are whiteout conditions, blizzard conditions,” Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley told “PBS NewsHour.”
