The NWS previously warned that blizzards in the Great Lakes region of western New York continued into Sunday, “accumulating an additional two to three feet of snow (by) Sunday night.”
A couple in Buffalo, across the border from Canada, told AFP on Saturday they would not be able to make the 10-minute drive to see their family for Christmas because of roads being completely impassable.
Rebecca Bortolin, 40, said, “It’s hard because the conditions are so bad … many fire departments are not even sending trucks to the call.”
The storm caused the cancellation of nearly 3,000 US flights on Sunday, in addition to some 3,500 on Saturday and nearly 6,000 on Friday, according to the tracking website Flightaware.com.
The website reported that more than 1,000 US flights were already canceled within a few hours on Monday.
Passengers were stranded or delayed at airports throughout Christmas Day, including at major hubs in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Detroit and New York.
Road snow and white-out conditions temporarily closed some of the nation’s busiest transportation routes, including cross-country Interstate 70.