NORTHEAST US – A howling blizzard with wind gusts over 70 mph heaped snow on the Boston area along with other stretches of lower New England and Long Island yesterday but failed to live up to the hype in Philadelphia and New York City, where buses and subways started rolling again in the morning.

Eastern Massachusetts and parts of Long Island were the hardest hit by the blizzard that dumped nearly two feet of snow on New England – causing heavy winds, coastal flooding and plunging all of Nantucket into the darkness. At least two feet of snow was expected in most of Massachusetts, potentially making it one of the top snowstorms of all time. The National Weather Service said a 78 mph gust was reported on Nantucket, and a 72 mph one on Martha’s Vineyard. In Marshfield, Massachusetts – between Boston and Cape Cod – there were striking images of homes underwater.

In New England, the storm was a bitter, paralysing blast, while in the New York metro area, it was a bust that left forecasters apologising, some New Yorkers griping, and officials defending their near-total shutdown on travel.

Light snow fell steadily early yesterday in midtown Manhattan as a few municipal trucks rumbled down empty streets. The city had an almost eerie, post 9/11 feel to it: No airplanes in the sky. An unexpected quiet.

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.

Forecasters originally said the storm could bring one to three feet of snow and punishing hurricane-force winds. But early yesterday, they downgraded most of those numbers, saying New England would fare the worst, but even then not as bad as expected.