Winter Storm Jonas: At Least 27 Dead, Travel Slowly Getting Back on Track

After Winter Storm Jonas crippled areas across the East Coast with ice, high winds and flooding, millions of Americans have been trying to dig themselves out of the aftermath. At least 27 people have died in the storm, a quarter of a million customers have lost power and hundreds of crashes have been reported.

Travel bans barring non-emergency vehicles from the roads of New York City and Baltimore were lifted by early morning, and mass transit systems that had been partially suspended during the storm were scheduled to run again.

But even as United Airlines said limited service might begin later in the afternoon in New York City, airports in the Washington D.C. area were likely to remain closed Sunday, and other airlines started to cut Monday service in addition to the 9,500 already-canceled weekend flights.

(MORE: Where Winter Storm Jonas Ranks in History)

The massive snowstorm brought both the nation's capital and its largest city to a stop, dumping as much as 3 feet of snow and stranding tens of thousands of travelers. At least 27 deaths were blamed on the weather, resulting from car crashes, shoveling snow and hypothermia.

The snow dropped 26.8 inches in Central Park, the second-most recorded since 1869. The snowfall narrowly missed tying the previous record of 26.9 inches set in February 2006. The snow finally stopped falling in New York City around 10 p.m. Saturday night, though authorities insisted people stay indoors and off the streets as crews plowed deserted roads and police set up checkpoints to catch violators.

The storm dropped snow from the Gulf Coast to New England, with areas of Washington surpassing 30 inches. The heaviest unofficial report was in a rural area of West Virginia, not far from Harpers Ferry, with 40 inches. Flurries even reached North Florida.

"This is kind of a Top 10 snowstorm," said weather service winter storm expert Paul Kocin, who co-wrote a two-volume textbook on blizzards.

(MORE: Heavy Snow Collapses Roofs in at Least 4 States)

The usually bustling New York City looked more like a ghost town. With Broadway shows dark, thin crowds shuffled through a different kind of Great White Way, the nickname for a section of the theater district. And Bruce Springsteen canceled Sunday's scheduled show at Madison Square Garden.

Throughout the region, drivers skidded off snowy, icy roads in accidents that killed several people Friday and Saturday. Those killed included a 4-year-old boy in North Carolina; a Kentucky transportation worker who was plowing highways; and a woman whose car slid off a roadway due to speed and slick conditions in Tennessee. Three people died while shoveling snow in Queens and Staten Island.

In Washington D.C., an 82-year-old man went into cardiac arrest while shoveling snow outside of his home. Chief Medical Examiner Roger A. Mitchell Jr. announced the death during a press conference Sunday evening, but did not release the man's name or where in the city his home is located.

A man in Reading, Pennsylvania, died of carbon monoxide poisoning Saturday night after being trapped in his car by a snowplow deluge. According to Assistant Chief Deputy John Hollenbach, David Perrotto, 56, was either in the car with the motor running to take a break or to get out of the parking space when the snow plow came and buried the car, blocking the exhaust and trapping him.

(MORE: Another Snowmaker Ahead This Week?)

Saturday night a mother and her year-old son in Passaic, New Jersey, died of carbon monoxide poisoning while sitting in a running car that had a tailpipe blocked with snow. According to officers, the woman's husband was shoveling snow for about 20 minutes before returning to the car and finding his family unresponsive.  

A second child in the car, the woman's 3-year-old daughter, was also hurt and has been hospitalized. She is reportedly in "very critical condition." 

A United States Capitol Police officer died of a heart attack while shoveling snow over the weekend, according to Politico. Officer Vernon Alston, 44, collapsed in his garage and was transported to Kent County Hospital in Dover, Delaware, where he was pronounced dead.

An Ohio teenager sledding behind an all-terrain vehicle was hit by a truck and killed, and two people died of hypothermia in southwest Virginia. In North Carolina, a man whose car had veered off an ice-covered road was arrested on charges of killing a motorist who stopped to help.

A Georgia postal worker was killed after a tree fell onto his vehicle in DeKalb County Saturday afternoon, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The tree, which "appeared to be in poor health," was likely blown over by strong winds, said DeKalb County fire Capt. Eric Jackson.

Overall, five people were reported dead in New York, due to shoveling snow, reports the Associated Press. 

According to The New York Times, all the deaths have been attributed to attempting to shovel snow. In Queens and Staten Island, three adults ages 67, 78 and 80 died while shoveling. On Long Island, a 61-year-old man went into a cardiac arrest while shoveling, and a 94-year-old man also trying to clear snow succumbed to a heart attack. 

In Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, drivers were marooned for hours in snow-choked highways.

Roofs collapsed on a historic theater in Virginia and a horse barn in Maryland, while seaside towns in New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland grappled with flooding.

(MORE: Will Winter Storm Jonas Rank Among the Biggest East Coast Snowstorms in Living Memory?)

The snow was whipped into a maelstrom by winds that reached 75 mph at Dewey Beach, Delaware, and Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, the weather service said. From Virginia to New York, sustained winds topped 30 mph and gusted to around 50 mph. And if that weren't enough, the storm also had bursts of thunder and lightning.

Stranded travelers included Defense Secretary Ash Carter, whose high-tech aircraft, the Doomsday Plane, couldn't land at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland after returning from Europe. Carter was rerouted to Tampa, Florida.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.