5:09am UK, Tuesday December 28, 2010
Airports in the New York City area have reopened after heavy snow along America's east coast dumped four times the usual December snowfall in one day.
Snow brought chaos to large areas of the eastern US seaboard
New York's JFK, LaGuardia and nearby Newark international airport were reopened early today, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The airports were closed after a snow storm which started on Sunday drove snow, gale force winds and lightning across the eastern region of New York leaving thousands of passengers marooned due to the severe weather conditions.
Despite the reopened airports, passengers are still expected to face severe delays to their journeys as clear-up attempts continue.
Eric Schorr, 22, who has been stranded at JFK since December 26 said: "People are exhausted - they want to get home."
The past few days have been a nightmare for air travellers with many stranded
New York's Mayor, Michael Bloomberg asked people to avoid travelling if at all possible.
He told people "to stay home and enjoy their families."
He also went on to defend the city's clean up effort: "The furious pace of the snowfall two-three inches per hour required crews to plough streets repeatedly.
"It's being handled by the best professionals in the business and it really is inconvenient for a lot of people."
Stranded passengers could not leave airports even if they had wanted to - heavy snow had left alternative travel routes at a standstill.
Get the latest information from the Federal Aviation Administration's airport status website.
The storm which hit the east coast of the US with winds of up to 80mph, covered the streets of New York with up to two feet of snow, paralysed bus and train services and saw cab drivers abandoning their taxis.
Disgruntled foreigners stranded at airports have already voiced their woes about facilities during the blizzard.
"The airports had promised to put passengers up at hotels overnight but we waited for the shuttle buses to take us there," Yoann Uzan of France said.
"And then the buses couldn't get through because of the weather, so we were stuck here."
Hundreds of musicians scheduled to perform at London's 25th New Year's Day parade are also among the victims of the blizzard and feared they would not arrive in Britain in time.
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