Snow snarls Sunday air travel along the East Coast


Two women shield themselves from the snow at Battery Park on Sunday in New York

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From staff and wire reports

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Hundreds of flights were canceled Sunday after a fast-moving winter storm dumped snow on the upper Eastern Seaboard, but officials said air travel should be back to normal by Monday.

The storm moved up the East Coast overnight and early today, hitting the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, area with up to a foot of snow in some locations, and leaving 6 inches or more from New York City up through Boston, Massachusetts.

Airports in Boston; Hartford, Connecticut; and the New York area were forced to briefly shut down Sunday while crews worked to remove snow from runways. But the worst of it appeared to be over by late afternoon.

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"Our runways are clean and raring to go," said Laura White, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Boston's Logan International Airport.

Similarly, a taped recording at the New York Port Authority reported the area's airports were "fully operational," but it cautioned travelers to check with their airlines before heading to the airport.

Bus accident

Motorists also had a tough time as falling snow and high winds made visibility difficult. Police reported numerous accidents.

In New Jersey, a Greyhound bus flipped over around 2 a.m. Sunday on the snow-covered Garden State Parkway near the town of Toms River. Officials said 35 passengers were injured, some seriously.

The bus was returning to New York from a gambling trip to Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Flight delays

About 115 flights from Newark, JFK and LaGuardia airports were canceled between 6:30 and 10:30 a.m. Sunday, said Steve Coleman, spokesman for the New York Port Authority, which operates the airports.

JFK was closed for more than two hours because of snow, reopening about 10:30 a.m.. Complicating matters was a mishap with an Airbus-320 jet that slipped off the taxiway after landing. There were no injuries reported among the 140 passengers on JetBlue Flight 88, which originated in Ontario, California, said Coleman.

Philadelphia International Airport, which saw the leading edge of the storm late last night, also reported cancellations. "Some of the airlines started canceling last night," said airport spokesman Mark Pesce. He said the airport's two major runways were operational as of Sunday morning.

Boston's Logan Airport was idled for about 40 minutes, reopening about 11:30 a.m., said spokesman Phil Orlandella. White said only one runway was operating, but that was because the number of flights was down due to earlier cancellations. She said 104 flights at the Boston airport had been canceled by individual airlines.

White, who said 7.2 inches of snow fell at the airport, said there were no delays on outgoing flights, but incoming flights were delayed an average of 84 minutes.

Earlier, Orlandella said travelers should expect difficulty throughout the day.

"There are delays and cancellations. Right now, it looks like we're going to be on one runway for quiet a while," he said.

Hartford's Bradley International Airport was closed for about four hours, forcing the cancellation of about 50 flights. It reopened about 10:30 a.m.

The fast-moving storm was the second major snowfall to hit New York in recent weeks following the relatively snow-free winters of 1998-99 and 1999-2000. On New Year's Eve, a storm dumped a foot of snow on the city, with as much as 2 feet paralyzing some New Jersey suburbs.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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