Northeast U.S. scrambles to clear piles of snow as fresh storm approaches

Snowplows cleared the way for ambulances and fire trucks in Rhode Island. New York City workers geared up to dump massive basins of warm water on piles of snow and ice. And in Boston, officials tried to clear sidewalks coated in packed snow that cut off access for people using wheelchairs.

The gigantic snowstorm this week across the Northeast U.S. dropped piles of powder from Maryland to Maine and left cities on Wednesday (February 25, 2026) scrambling to clear towering heaps that were not showing signs of melting anytime soon.

By Tuesday evening (February 24, 2026), New York City had spread 143 million pounds (65 million kilograms) of salt, according to Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and signed up at least 3,500 people as emergency shovellers. The $30-per-hour shifts involve clearing snow across public streets and bus stops.

But with another storm expected on Wednesday, there was plenty more work left to do, especially for the many people with disabilities. Jeff Peters, spokesperson for the Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York, described parts of the city as impassable islands.

“You’ll find a portion of a sidewalk that is clear, and then there’s maybe a 6-inch (15-cm) pathway that can only be walked with one foot in front of the other and no room for a stroller, rollator, walker or crutches,” Mr. Peters said. “Then you get to the corner and not only is it unshovelled, but you have basically a glacier at the end of it.”

Tina Guenette, who uses a motorised wheelchair, had to shovel out her yard this week after more than 33 inches (84 centimetres) fell in Harrisville, Rhode Island, a town about 17 miles (27 kilometres) northwest of Providence.

“I really have no choice if my service dog wants to go outside,” Ms. Guenette said Tuesday. “Harrisville has a volunteer snow-shoveling programme, but it hasn’t had volunteers for the last few years,” she said.

The National Weather Service warned another storm originating in the Great Lakes could push into the Northeast on Wednesday. The clipper storm brings the prospect of a combination of rain and some snow, though it’s not forecast to be nearly as severe.

NYC Emergency Management warned commuters on Wednesday morning that the forecast light snow and freezing temperatures could bring slick roads and sidewalks as well as black ice.

“Monday’s (February 23, 2026) storm blanketed the region with snow, cancelled flights, disrupted transit, downed power lines and killed at least one person. More than 3 feet (0.9 metres) fell in Rhode Island — surpassing snow totals from the historic Blizzard of 1978 that struck the Northeast,” the National Weather Service said.

Meteorologist Ryan Maue, former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said if all of the snow that fell from Maryland to Maine fell just on Manhattan, the snow would tower over a mile high.

“In Newport, Rhode Island, Joseph Boutros, 21, was found unconscious inside a vehicle covered in snow on Monday night,” the city’s police department said in a statement. “The Salve Regina University student was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead due to carbon monoxide poisoning,” police said.

Some large school districts moved back to in-person classes on Wednesday (February 25, 2026), including Philadelphia, which had switched to online learning during the first two days of the week.

In New York City, more than 9,00,000 students in the nation’s largest public school system had a regular day on Tuesday. Many students and their caregivers scrambled over mountainous snow banks and dodged salt spreaders during the morning drop-off.

Power had returned for many of the hundreds of thousands who had lost electricity in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Delaware and Rhode Island. But about 1,73,000 customers in Massachusetts were still without power on Wednesday.

Thousands of flights in and out of the U.S. have been cancelled in recent days. By Wednesday, the disruptions seemed to be subsiding, with only around 150 grounded, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.

When Jamie Meyers’ flight landed in New York from Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Tuesday evening, the cabin full of relieved passengers burst into applause. The Manhattan resident was supposed to arrive home on Sunday but faced a cancellation and significant delay.

The weather service referred to Monday’s storm as a “classic bomb cyclone/nor’easter off the Northeast coast.” A bomb cyclone happens when a storm’s pressure falls by a certain amount within a 24-hour period.

Published – February 25, 2026 12:23 pm IST