Blizzard of 2006 drops most snow ever on NYC

(New York-WABC) (WABC) -- We have lived to see the biggest snow storm ever in New York City: 26.9 inches of snow in Central Park, something the National Weather Service confirmed has never happened before.

The record busting storm packed heavy winds, strong gusts, and covered Central New Jersey, Northeast New Jersey and much of Central Connecticut with nearly two feet of snow. And the wind chills made the air feel like it was in the single digits.

That cold weather and icy conditions will stay in place for the Monday morning commute.

It's treacherous travel on roads across the area. In Hoboken, New Jersey, where the snow kept falling hard this afternoon, there were near white-out conditions for hours at a time. On Long Island, the only way some drivers on the LIE had to get going again was the old fashioned way: With a push and a shove.

Commuters may take the snowfall totals in stride, but they certainly get worked up when it affects their ability to get around. Transportation was a real mess Sunday, and looks to be again as the work week gets started.

Hardest hit of our mass transit options seemed to be the Long Island Railroad. Eyewitness News reporter N. J. Burkett was at Jamaica Station in Queens, and reports that the LIRR stopped in its tracks Sunday afternoon, with no service in or out of Penn Station and hundreds of Sunday commuters left stranded on the rails for hours.

Imagine six hours going nowhere. It happened to hundreds of those passengers, when blowing, drifting snow caused the trains to lose power via the third rail.

The LIRR was forced to shut down all traffic between Penn Station and Jamaica, and went out to get the people stuck on eight separate trains. But it took them hours.

Three branches of the Long Island Railroad were still shut down Sunday night.

The LIRR says service will be restored on the entire system for the Monday morning commute, but some trains will be canceled and they say to expect 30 minute delays.

Patience was the key word for Metro North passengers as well, but many found even that didn't get them where they were going. Officials report because of all the snow and third rail issues, many trains were cancelled. They were reduced to trying- just trying to run a local train every two hours.

Metro North will be digging out all night, but for the morning commute you'll want to leave yourself a lot of extra time.

The Blizzard of 2006 not only stopped transportation, but was also a potential factor in a dangerous situation in midtown Manhattan. Four people suffered an electric shock at a service box on 42nd Street. Eyewitness News' Jeff Rossen went there, and reports that it happened twice today on a single metal plate in the area.

First, two teenaged girls walked on it and were shocked. They kept going, and never told anyone. That was a mistake. Later, two more people walked on the plate, and were shocked seriously enough that they couldn't move, had muscle spasms and had to be taken to the hospital.

The girls are from Tampa, Florida on vacation here. If not for a mother nearby who heard their screams and pulled them off, they could have been more badly hurt.

Con Ed crews immediately closed off the area and looked at what happened. They say it appears to be weather related, and that excess electricity was conducted to the plate.

Mayor Bloomberg was urging New Yorkers Sunday to stay off city streets so that sanitation workers could clear the snow. Twenty two-hundred plows and 350 salt spreaders are on the road. Twenty five-hundred sanitation employees are working 12 hour shifts.

The mayor insists tomorrow's commute shouldn't be a problem.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, (R) New York City: "At the moment, the department of sanitation is focusing on the main streets and then they will get to the secondary and tertiary streets. They should have all roads cleared by early Monday morning."

The Blizzard of 2006 grounded hundreds of flights at area airports, leaving thousands of people stranded.

Newark Airport is now open, although it has delays of up to six hours on arrivals. JFK Airport reopened just before 6:00 p.m. But folks stuck at LaGuardia are not so lucky. The airport won't be up and running until Monday at 6:00 a.m.

Eyewitness News reporter Marcus Solis is at LaGuardia, with some folks who were in a holding pattern.

And one of the stranger phenomenon: More than snow was lighting up the night in New Jersey during the storm. Early Sunday morning bolts of lightning streaked across the Hoboken sky, followed by booming thunder about ten seconds after that. Winter thunder is unusual, but many got a reminder Sunday that it can happen.

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