Several states in northeast US under emergency amid blizzard

States of emergency are in effect in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut as a massive winter storm has been sweeping across the northeastern United States since Sunday, leaving nearly 400,000 homes without power and causing over 5,500 flight cancellations or delays.

As of Monday morning, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut had declared a state of emergency, with snow depths now exceeding 60 centimeters in parts of those states, as well as in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Despite the continuous efforts of snowplows, persistent heavy snow and strong winds quickly recovered cleared roads, significantly increasing travel risk.

Therefore, New Jersey issued a travel ban on non-essential vehicles with limited exceptions on streets, bridges, and highways starting at 21:00 on Sunday. Originally scheduled to lift at 7:00 on Monday, the ban has been extended until noon due to the severe weather.

Just across the river, New York City also declared a state of emergency and issued a ban on non-essential travel on Sunday night. Though lifted on Monday evening, Mayor Zohran Mamdani warned that the city remains under a "dangerous travel advisory" throughout the night.

Travel across New Jersey and New York City ground to a halt due to the blizzard. NJ Transit halted all railway and bus operations, and New York City saw partial subway and bus suspensions and a full shutdown of the Long Island Rail Road, the busiest commuter railroad in North America.

Air travel was also heavily impacted. As of 10:00 on Monday, over 5,500 flights had been canceled and hundreds delayed nationwide, with three major airports in New York being the hardest hit.

The storm has also left nearly 400,000 homes without power across the northeastern United States. All public schools in New York and New Jersey shifted to remote learning on Monday, while numerous government agencies and businesses implemented work-from-home policies.

The restoration of power and public services is expected to take days, even as the snow begins to ease on Monday afternoon.

The U.S. dollar weakened in late trading on Monday.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, dropped 0.09 percent to 97.705 at 15:00 (2000 GMT).

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1792 dollars from 1.1780 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound lost to 1.3490 dollars from 1.3491 dollars in the previous session.

The U.S. dollar bought 154.62 Japanese yen, lower than 155.02 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar was down to 0.7744 Swiss francs from 0.7754 Swiss francs, and it was up to 1.3696 Canadian dollars from 1.3686 Canadian dollars. The U.S. dollar advanced to 9.0647 Swedish kronor from 9.0540 Swedish kronor.