Perilous Times
30 December 2010 Last updated at 13:17 ET
Tempers flare as Anger grows in New York over slow
blizzard clean-up
Thousands of Passengers spent another night stranded at airports
Anger is mounting in New York and New Jersey over the slow pace of
snow removal following the severe storms which brought the region
to a halt.
Major thoroughfares in Manhattan have been cleared, but large
parts of the city have yet to be ploughed.
Many residents are stuck in their homes unable to get to work, and
piles of snow are hindering ambulances.
New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn called the clean-up
operation the worst in memory.
"We're hearing reports from all over of people not even having
seen a plough by the afternoon of the day after," Ms Quinn told
reporters. "This is a level of lack of clean-up that I really
can't recall."
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has defended his administration's response
to the blizzard, telling reporters that his staff are working as
hard as they can and "using every single resource at our
disposal".
Piles of snow in Times Square Piles of snow lie in Manhattan's
Times Square but many city streets have not been cleared
The city has hired 1,900 labourers over the past two days to
shovel snow from pavements and streets, and deployed 28 front-end
loaders to help dig out stranded vehicles.
Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Bloomberg said only 50 city buses
remained stuck on city streets, down from 600 the day before.
He noted that the unusually large number of vehicles stuck in the
snow had made the clean-up extraordinarily difficult.
Mr Bloomberg has been criticized for not putting enough effort
into clearing New York's outer boroughs compared to the downtown
Manhattan area.
Ms Quinn has announced that she will hold hearings to investigate
problems with the clean-up.
In New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie is under fire for taking a
holiday at Disney World in central Florida while his state is
reeling in the aftermath of the storm.
Electricity has been restored to most homes in eastern Canada
after the storm caused widespread power outages. About 800
customers reportedly remain without power in the New Brunswick
area.
More snow is forecast in some parts of Newfoundland and Labrador,
Canada's easternmost province.
Life-threatening chaos
Snow plough digging out an ambulance Snow plough drivers tried to
aid dozens of ambulances stuck in the streets
Mr Bloomberg said that the city's emergency responders, whom he
called the finest in the world, were overwhelmed during the
blizzard, leaving many needy people without help.
On Monday, the 911 emergency phone line received almost 50,000
calls - the sixth highest number in 911's history.
The New York Times reported that over 200 ambulances had become
stuck in streets left unploughed or blocked by abandoned cars.
Paramedics had to carry stretchers long distances, climbing over
piles of snow, to reach sick residents.
The New York Times also reported that one woman with stroke
symptoms waited six hours for a response, by which stage she was
unresponsive, and a woman in labour waited over nine hours for
help. By then, it was too late to save her baby.
Mr Bloomberg said he was "extremely dissatisfied" with the
performance of the city's emergency medical service, and would be
investigating what had gone wrong.
Clogged airports
Meanwhile, most airlines have restored regular services but are
struggling to cope with the volume of stranded passengers.
Passengers line up for taxis at La Guardia airport Travellers form
long lines in the cold waiting for taxis at La Guardia airport
More than 5,000 flights were cancelled in the New York area alone
during the storm.
The backlog of flights has caused chaos at several airports which
are having difficulty finding enough gates for passengers to
disembark.
Two Cathay Pacific aircraft and one British Airways jet were stuck
on the tarmac at New York's JFK Airport for seven hours while they
waited for a gate to open up.
Passenger Arthur Wong, who flew from Vancouver to New York with
Cathay Pacific, told the BBC his plane had been stuck on the
tarmac at JFK Airport for seven-and-a-half hours after landing on
Tuesday.
Moe Fayed, from New York City, said he had spent 19 hours stranded
at Boston Logan airport because of problems at JFK and had been
told the earliest his party could now leave was 2 January because
of the backlog of travellers.
"The hotel looks like a refugee camp, with many people on their
iPads and phones desperately trying to re-route," he told the BBC.
Airport terminals are still flooded with travellers, many of whom
were stuck in long queues for rental cars, lost luggage and ticket
rebooking.
Airport vendors can barely keep up with demand, according to
reports. One Starbucks coffee shop at JFK Airport shut its doors
on Tuesday after running out of supplies, and has yet to reopen.
Train services in New York are slowly returning to normal, but the
Long Island Rail Road, a heavily used commuter service, is running
only seven of its 11 lines.