East Coast Blizzard Paralyzes Transport Systems
American commuters in the East Coast are plowing and shoveling their way out of thick mound of snow as the work week began. The blizzard has inflicted a region-wide paralysis with crippled railway service, slippery sidewalks, and unsafe roads.
The historic snowfall left many businesses, government offices, and schools shut down. As the clean-up drive commences, 36 people were discovered dead. The towering mound of snow reached reportedly reached 3ft across the five states in the region.
Although the travel ban has been lifted Sunday, authorities continue to advise citizens to clear off the streets until the clean-up effort has completed.
Forecasters warn that the skies remain treacherous for air travel which caused the cancellation of more than 12, 000 flights since Friday.
In New York, 80% of the railway services have re-opened to accommodate a throng of eager commuters.
To bring the New York back to normalcy, Mayor Bill de Blasio offered $13.50 an hour to dig out snow and sweetened it with a $20.50 per hour offer for people willing to clear the snow off the road for more than 40 hours a week as mentioned in a report by ABC News.
In Virginia, the clean-up cost is projected to reach a total of $2 million to $3 million per hour- the state's most expensive price tag for snow-clearing operations as stated by NBC News.
In Baltimore, local officials scrambled 500 pieces of special equipment all the way from New York and Canada to dig out the deep snow blanket covering the ground.
The nearly record-breaking blizzard nicknamed "Snowmageddon" and "Snowzilla" disrupted the lives of nearly 85 million people and caused power outage to more than 300, 000 people in the East Coast according to BBC News.
