Dozens of schools across North Carolina, South Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Maine gave children a snow day. Schools in Philadelphia, Boston and New York City did the same. It was the first time in more than five years that New York City called off classes for its 1.1 million public school students.
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A man shovels snow outside the New York Stock Exchange March 2, 2009. [Agencies]
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Some New York parents complained that the city waited until 5:40 a.m. to call off classes, saying they didn't have enough notice. Mayor Michael Bloomberg brushed off the criticism and praised the city's storm response, which included dispatching 2,000 workers and 1,400 plows to work around the clock to clean New York's 6,000 miles of streets.
"It's like plowing from here to Los Angeles and back," Bloomberg said at a news conference, standing in front of an orange snow plow at a garage. Central Park recorded 7 inches of snow, and more than a foot was reported on parts of Long Island, where high winds caused 2-foot drifts on highways in the Hamptons.
The storm offered a hint of irony in a couple of cities. People had to brave the snow and cold to attend the annual Philadelphia Flower Show, an indoor exhibition that provided a fragrant, spring-like glimpse of yellow daffodils, crimson azaleas and white tulips. In the nation's capital, hundreds of protesters gathered on Capitol Hill to protest a power plant and global warming during one of the worst storms of the year.
In Fairfax, Va., 8-year-old Sarah Conforti said Monday's day off was just what she'd been hoping for, and planned to "make a snowman or play in the snow with my friends," she said.
Her mother, Noelle Conforti, said Sarah and her 10-year-old sister couldn't be happier about the school-free day. "The kids are against the window, just looking out the window like a cat," she said. "It's hilarious."
At a Lowe's home improvement store in Glen Burnie, Md., snow shovels and bags of salt were sold out before noon, employee Eric Pennington said. But Pennington wasn't too busy -- he works in the garden section, where an order of azaleas just arrived.
"Nobody expects 6 to 8 inches of snow outside on March 2," Pennington said. "We know there aren't going to be people here buying soil and mulch and plants and roses."
The snow began to accumulate in New Hampshire and Massachusetts as the storm moved north, but most residents there were taking it in stride.
"This is New England, after all," said Dave Richardson of Salem, Mass.
