Snowstorm on US east coast causes cancellation of thousands of flights

Washington (ANTARA) - A severe snowstorm blanketing the United States East Coast with snow and strong winds caused nearly 6,500 flight cancellations and delays on Monday, according to the FlightAware.com tracking portal.

“Total flight cancellations within, to, or from the United States today: 5,445, whilst 911 other flights experienced delays,” the portal stated.

According to the portal, three major airports in the New York City area — John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark — were forced to cancel nearly 90 per cent of flights. A similar situation occurred at Boston Logan International Airport, which cancelled nearly 1,000 flights.

Meanwhile, the PowerOutage.us portal reported that more than 550,000 customers experienced power cuts along the East Coast.

The US National Weather Service warned that the severe winter storm was expected to bring heavy snowfall, strong winds and coastal flooding to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions, potentially causing impossible travel conditions and power outages.

On Sunday, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani declared a state of emergency and imposed a travel ban as the winter storm struck the area.

The travel ban was in effect from Sunday at 9.00 pm local time (09.00 WIB) until Monday (23 February) at 12.00 pm local time (Tuesday, 24 February at 00.00 WIB). The neighbouring state of New Jersey also imposed a travel ban, prohibiting vehicles from using roads, bridges and toll roads.

States of emergency are now in effect in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut as the storm sweeps across the northeastern United States.

Source: Sputnik/RIA Novosti-OANA