City that never sleeps caught napping as snow fears ease

Snow falls around the Empire State Building in midtown Manhattan

New York City looked like a ghost town early yesterday after being hit by a snowstorm that disrupted life for tens of millions along the US East Coast.

Although the storm did not live up to expectations, New York had an almost eerie feel to it. No planes in the sky and no trains running underground made it unusually quiet.

Light snow fell steadily early yesterday in midtown Manhattan as a few municipal trucks rumbled down empty streets.

Forecasters originally warned the storm could be historic, bringing up to three feet of snow and punishing hurricane-force winds.

But early yesterday, they downgraded most of those numbers, saying Boston and the north-eastern New England region would fare the worst, but even then not as bad as expected.

More than 7,700 flights in and out of the Northeast were cancelled, and many of them may not take off again until today

Schools and businesses let out early. Government offices closed. Shoppers stocking up on food jammed supermarkets and elbowed one another for what was left. Broadway stages went dark.

Mayor Bill de Blasio urged New Yorkers to go home and stay there, and the city’s entire transit system was shut down.

A 17-year-old boy snow-tubing down a New York street with friends crashed into a lamp standard and died, police said.