Snowstorm turns New York City upside-down

NEW YORK - The city that never sleeps went to sleep. It became a ghost town.

New York City was barren and desolate on Monday as residents heeded the dire warnings of officials and stayed indoors, the New York Daily News reported.

From Times Square to Penn Station, the most iconic and well-travelled parts of the city remained luminous, but were devoid of any life.

Forced indoors by the monster storm that is set to get worse, New Yorkers went online instead to look for love and friendship in the time of snowfall.

Both men and women went to the personals section of Craigslist on Monday as snow began to fall across much of the east coast of the country, Mail Online reported.

As the snow began to pile up, so did the posts in search of that special "blizzard buddy".

One New Jersey resident hoped a woman stuck in the snowy drudgery in Manhattan might hop over to Jersey City before the trains shut down on Monday night.

He even posted a photo of himself in a head-to-toe pink Easter bunny costume.

"Hey," the 42-year-old wrote, "Don't be alone this blizzard! I'm your man!"

While the "Blizzard Bunny" took the humour route, other posts used other means to entice someone to their place.

"I'm a single 29-year-old male living on Wall Street and I don't want to spend the blizzard alone," said another post.

"I have endless amounts of Netflix, HBOGo, Shotime, you name it!"

OTHER METHODS

A 35-year-old man offered booze and frozen breakfast staples. He posted: "I come with boxes of Eggo waffles, plenty of wine, fast food, movies, whatever you like.

"I am also a fireman with the New York Fire Department and work out regularly.

"I am just looking for someone to eat, drink and be merry with. Contact me if you are interested."

Meanwhile, retailers ran short of everything from shovels and snowblowers to basic groceries.

At a supermarket in the state of Massachusetts, canned food shelves were thinned and checkout lines long.

In Brooklyn, New York City, grocery store shelves ran out of bread and bottled water.

"I've been to three or four stores and I can't get any milk or eggs," said Marcy Rivers. "I don't know what we are going to do now."

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday banned travel from 11pm for all but emergency vehicles on roads in 13 counties, including New York City, suburban Westchester and Long Island, with the threat of a US$300 (S$400) fine for violators.

But the ban was lifted yesterday and the New York public transport was reopened.

Mr Cuomo told CNN: "The ploughs have been working, salt trucks have been working, but it is not to be taken lightly.

"We're not saying that you should go out unless you really need to go out.

"There will be delays on the roads. But we think we can lift the travel ban in coordination with our neighbouring states. And we'll start to bring the public transportation system back online."

Winter storm Juno hits New York

WHEN: From Monday night

WHERE: North-eastern United States

NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN THE POSSIBLE BLIZZARD ZONE: 28 million

NUMBER OF FLIGHTS CANCELLED: More than 7,000

This article was first published on Jan 28, 2015.
Get The New Paper for more stories.