Snow storm batters US east, piling onto holiday chaos

A snow-plough removes snow on the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial after a winter storm over the capital region on January 3, 2022 in Washington, DC

After a bruising holiday week of flight cancellations and record surges in Covid-19 cases, a powerful winter snow storm Monday further snarled US transport, shuttering the federal government and bringing Washington to a standstill.

The storm packed an unexpectedly fierce punch and appeared to have caught much of the capital city off guard, temporarily stranding US President Joe Biden on Air Force One and dumping up to nine inches (23 centimeters) of snow on Washington.

More than 4,900 flights Monday, the first workday of 2022, were cancelled globally as of 8:30 pm (0130 GMT Tuesday), including 3,173 flights within, into or out of United States, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.

While much of the US Mid-Atlantic was caught in the bad weather, conditions were acute in the capital and neighboring states of Maryland and Virginia, where accumulation in some spots topped 12 inches, according to meteorologists who described it as the region's biggest snow storm in at least two years.

"If it is not absolutely necessary for you to go out, stay home and off the roads," she warned.

Biden himself was snowed in aboard his presidential aircraft after landing at Joint Base Andrews near Washington, with deboarding delayed by half an hour so the tarmac could be plowed.

- 'I need to go home!' -

"Hey @SouthwestAir can you stop cancelling every single flight out of DCA (Washington National Airport)? I need to go home!" passenger Kyle Hughes wrote on Twitter.

Schools around the region were also closed due to snow.

A woman named Kayla described her own ordeal Sunday: "I was supposed to get home at 10:30 yesterday morning and at this point I've had 3 flights cancelled and one delayed to the point where I missed my connection."

Many pilots and flight attendants have called in sick after testing positive or being forced to quarantine due to contact with someone who has the virus.

...

Originally published as Snow storm batters US east, piling onto holiday chaos