Snow, Sleet Pound East; Air Traffic Disrupted

Sheets of snow and sleet swept through the eastern United States on Friday, burying two of New York’s airports under five-foot drifts and forcing the federal government to virtually close in Washington.

More than 18 inches of snow fell in the New York metropolitan area as the city struggled to dig out from the 10th snowstorm of the season and its worst winter in 18 years.

The New York Stock Exchange shut early because of the weather. Ground transportation along much of the East Coast, including commuter trains, was crippled and millions were trapped in collective cabin fever.

Many municipalities declared states of emergency as supplies of salt ran low and the snow clogged roads. Accidents were common.

Two of New York’s three airports were completely inoperable while only a trickle of outgoing flights was allowed to take off from the one runway open at La Guardia. The result: Flights were canceled all over the world.

“People are stuck” everywhere, said Clifford Koch, chairman of the Beekman Travel Service, a Manhattan firm with a large international clientele.

The Concorde from London was forced to land in Bangor, Me. In Los Angeles, direct flights to Newark and JFK airports were canceled, stranding hundreds of passengers and prompting others to devise indirect routes to East Coast destinations.

“Passengers are being put on the next available flight, which will probably be tomorrow,” a reservation clerk at United Airlines said Friday. “All flights are canceled for today.”

Flights that required connections in hub cities--such as Phoenix, Dallas, Denver and Chicago--en route to the East Coast were largely unaffected, but many passengers found themselves stranded once they arrived in those cities, airport officials said.

“This whole winter has been a killer,” said John Kampfe, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airports. “You have the wind. You have intense snow coming down. . . . It’s a whiteout condition. The snow removal crews can’t go out and can’t see in front of them.”

Fearing for the safety of nonessential federal employees, the U.S. government basically closed for the second time this winter in Washington. It was only the second time the government was forced to shut twice in the same winter since the Office of Personnel Management began keeping track of closures. The last time the government shut twice in the same winter was 1987.

“These decisions are very difficult to make,” said OPM Director of Communications Janice Lachance. “ . . . It’s a matter of people being able to get to work safely without putting themselves and others in danger.”

In Philadelphia, snowy streets were almost deserted. The foul weather stretched as far south as Florida, where thick clouds and high winds for a time delayed the landing of the space shuttle.

In communities all along the East Coast, the weather strained municipal budgets. Extra snow removal workers were hired in New York. In Kentucky, 12 counties declared states of emergency after a storm coated the state with three inches of ice. Supplies of salt to melt snow and ice on sidewalks and roads were short. Officials in Pennsylvania said the state was almost out of salt and a 180-truck convoy was sent to mines in Upstate New York. Virginia sent 45 trucks.

Some areas of New England, already buried under two feet of snow, braced for further accumulations.

The deep snow in New Hampshire forced owls, bobcats and other predators to search for food in populated areas as their normal prey remained safely burrowed under snowbanks.

The mere act of walking in New York, where snow drifts reached to the roofs of cars, became an adventure.

At Grand Central Station, Earl MacKenzie, a commuter hurrying home to Connecticut, slipped on the slushy floor.

“Oh God, I landed right on my keester,” he exclaimed as two homeless men collecting coins in paper cups hurried to help him up. After saying thanks, he headed toward his train. “Cheapskate! I hope you fall again,” one of the homeless muttered.

The massive storm, which followed almost a foot of snow earlier in the week, also brought acts of kindness toward the homeless. In a shoe repair shop on Manhattan’s residential upper West Side, a good Samaritan purchased a pair of overshoes for a homeless man and struggled to help him put them on over his battered shoes. A block away on Broadway, two young girls bought discount socks, gloves and hats and handed them out to homeless people.

At its peak, snow fell in parts of New York City at the rate of two inches an hour. Newark, N.J., reported 18 inches of snow as the storm continued on Friday.

The Long Island Rail Road, the nation’s largest commuter rail system, was forced to halt service on part of its network, including all service to New York’s Pennsylvania Station.

By early afternoon the train station in Jamaica, Queens, had become “a commuter refugee camp,” in the words of one of the thousands of cold, angry people who huddled at gates, waiting for a train.

“It’s overcrowded to the point of being dangerous,” said Gary Lewi, one of the refugees.

The storm even affected the crisis in Bosnia as the U.N. Security Council postponed its debate on the war-torn nation until Monday.

Michael Wyllie, a metoerologist at the National Weather Service, said New York was experiencing its snowiest winter since 1976-77, when more than 50 inches fell. So far this winter, the meteorologists said, the city has received almost 40 inches.

“It started to get cold just around Christmas time, and it hasn’t let up that much,” Wyllie said.

Under snow emergency regulations, only cars with chains or radial tires can use major New York roads. But it largely is an honor system--and in many cases it was ignored Friday. As he drove down the East Side Drive, a major highway which was only partially plowed, a cab driver, turned toward his passenger with some disquieting news. The driver said he was being extra careful because his tires were partially bald.

After only slight skidding, the cab arrived safely at its destination.

The storm, which mixed cold Arctic air with moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, especially hit plane travelers, some of whom were trying to get to Lillehammer, Norway, for the Olympics.

“This is one of the longest duration storms we can remember,” said Bill Berry, a spokesman at Delta Air Lines headquarters in Atlanta. “ . . . This storm has impacted all the transatlantic operations.

“Flights that were on their way will be diverted to other airports and then we will try to accommodate passengers as best we can around New York. There’s not much hope for those who have to get into the New York area.

“It’s bad timing for many of those people who are headed for Norway and the Olympics,” he added. “Our Norway service cannot get out of Kennedy.”

Like other airlines using Kennedy as a hub for European travel, Delta scrambled to find other routes for passengers to reach Lillehammer in time for the opening ceremonies.

Throughout parts of the East battered by the storm, cabin fever was a common malady. As schools closed, many parents worried that spring vacations would have to be shortened to make up for lost class time and plans for family getaways would have to be modified or even abandoned.

Stuck behind snowdrifts at home, parents fought to keep their youngsters busy, served snacks, mopped up spills and wiped noses runny from the cold. Snowmen sprouted on normally busy blocks.

With snow falling so rapidly, clearing a path on sidewalks seemed at times almost a Herculean task, but some would-be strongmen ignored the storm. A mailman complained about his difficult trek through the snow outside a nearby gymnasium.

“All these tough guys were working out, lifting weights,” the mailman lamented. “You think one of them could lift a shovel.”

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Marlene Cimons and Ray Delgado in Washington, Barry Bearak and Geraldine Baum in New York, Dean Murphy in Los Angeles and researcher Edith Stanley in Atlanta.