Stranded: Official Response to Snowstorm Angers Commuters

By KEVIN DOLAK (@kdolak) and LEEZEL TANGLAO (@leezeltanglao)

Dec. 27, 2010

VIDEO: A recap of the weekend storm that blanketed the Northeast.

(ABCNEWS.com)

Many commuters seethed with anger and frustration today as they endured the aftereffects of a massive snowstorm that battered the Northeast Sunday, including a New York City subway rider who was stranded on a frigid above-ground train for nine hours.

"No heat, no nothing," he told ABC News affiliate WABC from a partially opened subway car door.

Another passenger had told the station earlier that riders were stuck in snow drifts on the A train for more than six hours, WABC reported.

With 20 inches of snow, it was the fifth largest storm in New York City history.

The Manhattan-bound train, near Kennedy Airport in Queens, carried a mix of commuters and airport travelers, he said.

"We can't move, we're stuck here and it's cold," John Hammerton said in a telephone interview with WABC.

Some passengers were in tears and others took the opportunity to sleep as they awaited word on their rescue, he said.

Most of the United States has been hit with either rain or snow in the past seven days, burying much of the country in several inches of rain or snow, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

In another part of Queens, Carla Miranda of Flushing, 33, was stuck on a Manhattan-bound 7 train for two and a half hours today.

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"I'm cold," she said, adding that she was heading to her job at an investment bank.

"We were stuck for two hours. While I was on the second stop they said the train I was on was temporarily suspended, so we just sat there"

She eventually changed her mind and went home.

Such challenges were not limited to the subway. Some New Jersey motorists were stranded overnight, starting at about 7:30 p.m.

"We can see the whole open highway in front of us and can't understand why they can't get plows in," a frustrated Carrie Eckart said this morning in a telephone interview with ABC News New York affiliate WABC, as she watched plows and emergency vehicles breeze through in the other direction.

"If New Jersey isn't closed, it should be," she added, explaining that hers was the lead car in a long line of west-bound vehicles stranded along Interstate 280.

All told, about 60 people were reportedly stranded in their cars on I-280 in West Orange overnight. They have since been rescued, according to state police.

They were among the victims of a post-holiday travel nightmare as airlines canceled more than 1,500 flights and others were stranded in cars and on public transportation.

New Jersey State Police Sgt. Steven Jones told ABC News Radio that plows are working to keep other major highways open.

"As fast as they go through, the wind is blowing it back onto the roadways, and that's pretty much the toughest part of travel right now is that wind," he said.

The winter blizzard dumped more than a foot of snow in New York City and New England, and nearly two dozen states east of the Mississippi are under severe weather warnings.

It is the same storm that brought flooding and non-stop rainfall to Southern California last week.

Back on the East Coast, two homes were destroyed by fire in coastal Scituate, Mass., this morning as flooding forced fire crews to use life rafts to rescue at least seven people, including a family of four, according to ABC News affiliate WCVB.

About 80 people were evacuated from their homes along the water.