After a wild winter weekend, a difficult commute awaits
NEW YORK (AP) — After a weekend of sledding, snowboarding and staying put, the blizzard-blanketed Eastern U.S. will confront a Monday commute slowed by slick roads, damaged transit lines and endless mounds of snow.
Authorities cautioned against unnecessary driving, airline schedules were in disarray and commuter trains will be delayed or cancelled for many as the work week begins after a storm that dumped near record snows on the densely populated Washington, D.C. to New York City corridor.
Of at least 29 deaths blamed on the weather, shoveling snow and breathing carbon monoxide claimed more lives than car crashes as people recovered from a storm that dropped snow from the Gulf Coast to New England.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike reopened Sunday afternoon near Pittsburgh after more than 500 cars, trucks and buses — some carrying the Duquesne University men's basketball team and the Temple University women's gymnastics squad — got stuck Friday night.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said on Sunday evening that almost all mass transit services will be running in time for the morning rush hour, including nearly 80 percent of the Long Island Rail Road.
Broadway reopened after going dark at the last minute during the snowstorm, but museums remained closed in Washington, and the House of Representatives postponed votes until February, citing the storm's impact on travel.
Along with clearing snow and ice from facilities and equipment, the operators of airlines, train and transit systems had to figure out how to get snowbound employees to work.
A beloved Capitol policeman joined a grim list of people suffering heart attacks while shoveling snow.
[...] a growing number of people died of carbon monoxide poisoning.