NYC under travel ban from deadly East Coast snowstorm

New York City and Long Island were under a travel ban Saturday, including all transit from New Jersey bridges and tunnels into and out of the city as a deadly blizzard left major cities, roadways and airports along the East Coast largely immobilized.

A man walks past a mountain of snow created by snowplows on King Street in Alexandria, Va., Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016.

More than 60 million people were under blizzard, winter storm or freezing rain warnings as the storm's effects stretched from Georgia to Massachusetts, according to Weather.com. More than 80 million people are in the storm's path, says the Associated Press.

A car is buried under snow in Alexandria, Va., Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016.

Some 250,000 customers were without power as the storm roared up the East Coast, according to the Weather Channel. The storm officially achieved blizzard status late Saturday in Washington, D.C., the National Weather Service said.

Grover Price, 35, right, with The Hope Center, asks a homeless man standing outside the Samaritan Inn on Salem Avenue in Roanoke, Va., if he wants to stay in a warm shelter on Friday, Jan. 22, 2016. Price opened up a second shelter at Paradise Cathedral on Melrose Avenue to accommodate more people when he ran out of space at The Hope Center, where people slept overnight.

 At least 18 people died in storm-related incidents in Tennessee, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia, The Associated Press reported. In Fort Washington, Md., one man died of an apparent heart attack while shoveling snow.

Gary Utley, 27, of Alexandria, snowboards behind a Jeep driven by his friend as snow falls, in Alexandria, Va., Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016.

Eleven states from Georgia to New York declared states of emergency. Air traffic ground to a halt across much of East Coast, with more than 10,000 flights canceled nationwide by Saturday afternoon.

Traffic is at a standstill on the Pennsylvania Turnpike near Bedford, Pa., Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016. The Duquesne men's basketball team and Temple University's women's gymnastics team are stuck on the turnpike due to treacherous weather conditions. A mammoth winter storm crawled up the U.S. East Coast on Saturday, making roads impassable, shutting down mass transit, and bringing Washington and New York City to a standstill.

 Underscoring the severity of the storm, all flights were halted Saturday at four of the nation’s busiest airports: Philadelphia, Washington Dulles, Washington Reagan National and Baltimore/Washington International.

Duke Energy lineman Aaron Crisafulli, bottom, checks on the progress of his coworker Jason Pearce in his bucket truck Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, as Pearce cut tangled ice-laden tree limbs from power lines at the corner of Boylan Avenue and Mountford Avenue in downtown Raleigh, N.C. The men, both Raleigh-based linemen for Duke Energy, were spending a 16-hour day moving from trouble spot to trouble spot in Raleigh after a winter storm swept over the Triangle Friday and Saturday.

Public transportation in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., was also shut down as local officials called on residents to hunker down and stay off the streets for a second day.

A woman walks to the train at the Metro North Train station in Greenwich, Conn., on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016.

 “This event has all the makings of a multibillion-dollar economic cost,” said meteorologist Steven Bowen of Aon Benfield, a London-based global reinsurance firm. After adding up damage to homes, vehicles, businesses and more, "we're potentially looking at one of the costlier winter storm events in recent memory,” he said.

Children with a sled make their way through Havemeyer Fields in Greenwich, Conn., on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016.

The so-called Blizzard of 1996, which had a similar size and scope, had a $4.6 billion economic cost (in 2016 dollars), Bowen said. “No two events are identical, but this provides some context as to how costly these storms can be.”

As New York City's travel ban took effect, the National Weather Service predicted 24-30 inches of snow for the metropolitan area, putting it within range of the city's biggest snowstorm on record, 26.9 inches received in 2006.

The order, effective mid-afternoon, shut down state highways and two major routes on Long Island. Above-ground subway stations in New York City were also being closed as the storm continued to pound the area.

Under the ban, only emergency vehicles will be allowed on the streets, and drivers who ignore the order could face heavy fines and license points, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced shortly before 6 p.m. that the travel ban, initially scheduled to expire at midnight, had been extended until Sunday morning.

In response, all Broadway matinees and evening performances for Saturday night were canceled, according to The Broadway League, the official website of the Broadway theater industry.
Asked for advice for parents whose kids want to frolic in the snow, de Blasio laced empathy with caution.

"If you want to go really quickly to someplace near your home, stay with your kids adult supervision necessary," he said. "This is a vastly intensifying storm and it’s slippery, it’s gusty. I, as a parent, wouldn't let my kids out of my sight."