Reuters/Boston/New York

A blizzard swept across the northeastern US yesterday, closing schools, cancelling thousands of flights and leaving residents in the hardest-hit parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut digging out as much as 2ft (60cm) of snow, though New York City was spared the storm’s brunt.
The governors of New York and New Jersey lifted travel bans they had imposed a day earlier and New York City’s subway system restarted after being closed for 10 hours, but officials urged people to stay off snow-covered roadways.
The snow was forecast to continue into early this morning in eastern New England, which could set a new snowfall record in Boston, where 18in (46cm) of snow was already on the ground by midday, often piled higher by strong winds.
“There are drifts now of four, five and six feet in some places,” Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker told reporters. Boston-area subways would remain closed for at least the rest of the day, Baker said.
Police said a teenager died late on Monday when he crashed into a lamppost on a street where he was snow-tubing on Long Island, one of the hardest hit areas in New York state.
The National Weather Service lifted its blizzard warning for the New York City area, but throughout the region offices were closed, schools were shut, some roads remained impassable, and thousands of flights were cancelled or delayed.
A blizzard warning remained in effect for much of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, where snow was expected to fall throughout the day at a rate as high as 2 to 3in (5 to 8cm) an hour.
Boston could receive up to 25in (64cm) of accumulation, approaching the record of 27.5in (69.85cm) set in February 2003.
Some in New York criticised the aggressive warnings of officials including Mayor Bill de Blasio, who for the first time in history ordered the city’s round-the-clock subways to close for a snowstorm. Officials with vivid memories of disasters including 2012’s Superstorm Sandy defended their actions.
Stuck at home, Northeasterners spent their energy on social media, filling Twitter and Facebook with photos of snow drifts covering the doors of their homes and what appeared to be a person in Boston dressed as the Yeti, a mythical abominable snowman, on hashtags including “#snowmaggeddon2015” and “#blizzardof2015.”
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie joked with Twitter followers that it was “too cold” to wear the fleece jacket he had sported in photos after Sandy.
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker broke with his predecessor’s tradition of wearing a fleece vest bearing a state emergency management agency logo, opting instead for a business suit he called his work uniform.
Some cab drivers in New York doubled fares and sought to pack additional passengers into their vehicles as office workers headed to their jobs.
The New York Stock Exchange, owned by Intercontinental Exchange Inc, opened as usual. Nasdaq OMX Group , and BATS Global Markets also expected to stay open for normal operating hours yesterday.
New Yorkers were divided on whether officials had over-reacted in ordering dramatic shutdowns ahead of the storm.
“The mayor might have blown it this time but he was probably just playing it safe,” said Manny Martinez, 55, as he salted his driveway in New York’s Brooklyn borough.
Others were frustrated that de Blasio had pre-emptively shut the subway and ordered cabs off the roads.
“This made it a little difficult to go to my job. I usually take a taxi, but no taxis today,” said Greg Noble, 29, as he walked briskly to his maintenance job some 30 city blocks from his Manhattan home.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo defended the decisions, which had included a driving ban in New York City and its surrounding counties overnight.
“I would rather, if there is a lean one way or another, lean towards safety because I have seen the consequences the other way and it gets very frightening very quickly ... we have had people die in storms,” Cuomo told reporters. “I would rather be in a situation where we say ‘We got lucky.’”
Christie, his New Jersey counterpart, was less sanguine about the dire forecasts that preceded the storm.
“I wasn’t thrilled on my 5:30am phone call, but it’s the way it goes,” Christie told Philadelphia’s WTXF television.
Some of the heaviest snowfall was recorded in parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts, with about 20in (50cm) reported around Worcester, well over the 6in (15cm) reported in New York City’s Central Park.
Fewer Massachusetts residents and businesses lost power than was expected, Governor Baker said, adding that temperatures well below freezing had resulted in light snow. High winds could yet result in additional outages, he said.