Freeze Forces Closures in N.Y.

The United Nations was shut down and more than a million children got the day off from school Wednesday on the heels of a storm that dumped as much as 14 inches of snow in the Northeast.

It was the latest in a series of storms to spread snow and ice across parts of the eastern half of the nation since the weekend.

Ice and snow have closed schools, businesses and some government offices from the Plains states to the East Coast. Thousands of customers still had no electricity in the Southeast because of ice that broke tree limbs and power lines Tuesday.

“I hate it. I think one storm a year is plenty for me,” said Eunice Flynn, who braved the weather on Long Island to get a few things at a shopping center.

At least 56 deaths have been blamed on snow, ice and cold this week from Kansas to the East Coast.

Diplomats and tourists were surprised when they arrived at U.N. headquarters in New York and found it closed because of the storm.

“I’m going to see the Statue of Liberty,” said Japanese tourist Midori Uchidate after a U.N. security guard told her that tours were canceled and that she couldn’t go inside.

She was about to face a double disappointment: Liberty Island was closed too.

The storm did not live up to expectations in most of the Northeast.

Albany, N.Y., got 3 inches instead of the forecast 13 inches, the National Weather Service said. Rhode Island got half the 10 inches predicted. But New York’s Central Park got 10.5 inches and, 30 miles east of the city on Long Island, Dix Hills had 14 inches.

“This is pretty unusual for me,” Bill Gillies, 47, a lawyer visiting New York from Melbourne, Australia, said Tuesday night. “But I’m astonished at how people are coping. I’ve never seen this much snow outside a ski resort.”

In South Carolina, lights were back on Wednesday for most of the 300,000 customers who lost power after ice and snow blanketed the state, but thousands might remain without power until the weekend, utility officials said.

Classes were canceled in many school districts in New England and the Middle Atlantic region, including all schools in New York City, the nation’s largest system with 1.1 million students.

And for thousands of Maryland children, it was their third consecutive snow holiday.

It was the fourth snowstorm of the season for New York City. As of midnight Tuesday, Central Park had gotten 32.8 inches of snow since Dec. 1, more than 23 inches above average, meteorologist David Wally said.

Airlines canceled more than 400 flights Wednesday at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, along with more than 300 at LaGuardia Airport and about 50 flights at John F. Kennedy International Airport, officials said.