It hit a fairly large area, with accumulations of more than 20 inches of snow in parts of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.  Thousands of New York City employees worked 12-hour shifts, salting and plowing city streets, as residents were advised to shelter at home. Airports were closed in the New York area as snow fell at a rate of 3 inches an hour, reclaiming areas faster than they could be cleared.  "This is a very dangerous, big storm," Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said in a televised update on the weather conditions, dubbed the "Blizzard of '06."  Heavy snow warnings and blizzard warnings were in effect in parts of Massachusetts, cutting visibility and hindering travel. In Washington and Maryland, the snow tapered off as the day progressed and the winter storm system surged northeast. There were near-blizzard conditions in Connecticut, parts of Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.  Flights were canceled and airports closed. Newark Liberty International Airport, where there were about 200 cancellations on arrivals and departures, was closed, as were John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports.  A spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Pasquale DiFulco, said in an interview with the cable television station NY1 that heavy winds of up to 45 miles an hour were sending billowing drifts in the "overwhelming storm" blowing onto areas already plowed, but that the authorities were working to get the airports working as soon as possible.  The New York area was in the heart of the storm. In New York City, temporary laborers were deployed to supplement the clearing efforts, and 2,500 workers at a time were holding down 12-hour shifts, salting, plowing and digging out the roads. Mr. Bloomberg urged New Yorkers that they should clear their front pathways and sidewalks, but that they should keep their cars off the streets and use subway trains and buses if they had to travel. Broadway shows were scheduled to proceed despite the conditions, and a decision about whether to open schools on Monday would be made later in the day, he said.  There was no estimate as to how much the clearing operation would cost. "We will plow the streets and then figure out how to pay for it," Mr. Bloomberg said.  About 16 to 24 inches had been expected throughout the New York region, according to weather forecasters.  Slanting sheets of icy, driven snow clogged up visibility, which John Doherty, the sanitation commissioner in New York City, called the biggest problem.  He urged people to keep off the streets to allow heavy snow clearing vehicles to work unimpeded.  Some city drivers tried in vain to dig out their parked cars from under heaps of snow and caked snowdrift.  The National Weather Service described the weather conditions as "a major snowstorm" with winds of up to 50 miles an hour.  New York municipal authorities had braced for the onslaught. Five-thousand workers at the New York City Department of Sanitation were put in place to use about 2,000 pieces of heavy equipment, including 350 salt spreaders and 20 snow-melting machines.  About 200,000 tons of rock salt, to help melt the snow, had been stockpiled and was being drawn down from early in the morning.  New Jersey transit suspended bus service statewide. More than 80,000 customers were without power in Maryland, according to Linda Foy, a spokeswoman for the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company. She said it could be at least 24 hours before power is fully restored.  "It's taking us a long time to even get to the locations where we can begin the restoration process," Ms. Foy said, according to The Associated Press.  Power also was out at thousands of homes and businesses in New Jersey, New York's Long Island and Connecticut, The A.P. said.  The Metropolitan Transportation Authority canceled all subway track repairs and other construction projects over the weekend to avoid slowdowns in the event of snow. Consolidated Edison assigned 250 crews to Westchester County, which is typically hard hit during blizzards, to more quickly repair downed power lines.  Reporting for this article was contributed by Anthony Ramirez and Winnie Hu in New York, Nate Schweber in New Jersey and Angela Macropoulos in Westchester County, N.Y. .
The storm dropped a record amount of snow in Central Park, closing the region's three major airports and paralyzing traffic.