Storm disrupts travel along Atlantic Seaboard

NEW YORK -- Thousands of travelers were stranded after Sunday's fierce snowstorm canceled flights, halted trains and kept road crews struggling to keep up with blowing snow in the Northeast.

But the weekend storm allowed more people to stay at home so officials could focus on returning transportation systems to normal before the regular work week began.

"It's going to be a menace trying to clean it up," said Mayor Scott T. Rumana in Wayne, N.J.

All three New York-area airports were closed as airlines canceled upward of 500 inbound and departing flights -- 200 each at LaGuardia and Newark, and 120 at Kennedy, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said.

"Our car's in Newark. We can't even get close to there. We can't even get to Philadelphia or D.C.," said Maria Martinez, whose flight from Miami International Airport was canceled.

Port Authority spokesman Pasquale DiFulco said it was the first time Newark Liberty closed since Sept. 11, 2001.

The airport closures and grounded planes marooned travelers across the country. About 7,500 people were stranded just at Florida's Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, spokesman Steve Belleme said.

Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood had about 46 canceled outbound flights, Belleme said, and about 40 flights from Orlando International Airport were canceled. More than 80 flights had been canceled at Miami International.

"We've been playing cards for two hours. We expect to play a lot more cards," Cliff Jefferson said about nine hours into his stay at the Miami airport.

After their return flight to Massachusetts was canceled, he and a colleague planned to spend the night at the airport because there were no vacant hotel rooms in the area.

The snow also wreaked havoc on commuter rail service, leaving passengers snowbound in New York's Penn Station after the Long Island Rail Road canceled trains.

"I knew it would be problematic to get home when we left this afternoon, but I didn't imagine it would be this bad. Now I think I'll be here all day," said William DiMaggio, 20, who was trying to get home to suburban Stony Brook after spending the weekend celebrating his mother's birthday.

Amtrak reported a few cancelations and delays in the Northeast Corridor but said most trains remained in service.

New York's subways and other surface transport operated normally or intermittently as crews worked to clear 6,300 miles of streets and roads.

New Jersey Transit suspended all bus service statewide, and officials lowered the speed limit on the busy New Jersey Turnpike to 35 mph.

---

Associated Press writers Randall Chase in Dover, Del.; Jessica Gresko in Miami; Wiley Hall in Columbia, Md.; Brandie M. Jefferson in Boston; Bruce Shipkowsi in Trenton, N.J.; and Matthew Verrinder in Newark, N.J., contributed to this report.