Fresh snow misery hits eastern US

NEW YORK - The second major snowstorm in a week swept up the U.S. East Coast, piling on already snowbound Washington, where most federal government offices have been shut down since last week, and moving on to New York City, where the United Nations had to suspend its operations.
New York City had gone through a slow windup after days of forecasters warnings - and after largely missing out on the storm last weekend that stopped much of the rest of the East Coast in very deep tracks. By the time most New Yorkers went to bed on Tuesday, only light snow was falling - a tease for what the meteorologists insisted was coming. But by 7 a.m., thick, wet flakes were sticking, even in places where snow almost never accumulates, like Times Square.
By 8am, the wind was swirling and the streets were glistening with the white stuff piling on.
According to the US weather service, New York would see 12 to 15 inches by days end, but less than had piled up in places farther south during the storm last week.
In New York itself, the worst was expected later in the day, potentially creating a nightmarish commute home. Some transit lines planned extra service for early afternoon, figuring that workers who made it into the city in the morning would abandon their desks before the regular quitting time.
All schools were ordered closed, as did officials in school districts in nearly every major city along the Eastern Seaboard, from Baltimore to Philadelphia to Boston.
In Washington, all but emergency workers were given the day off Wednesday; some suburban school systems in Maryland had already given up on classes for the rest of the week.
The storm had originated in the Midwest, leaving behind as much as a foot of snow on Tuesday. It snarled traffic in the air and on the ground in Chicago, Minneapolis and Detroit.