Travel bans lifted in New York, New Jersey

NEW YORK - Travel bans were lifted in New York City and New Jersey on Tuesday and mass transit was due to resume after a storm predicted to be a crippling, city-crushing monster proved far less threatening than forecast.

The nation's largest city, which officials virtually shut down Monday night in anticipation of anywhere from a foot to three feet of snow, woke up to cold temperatures and about eight inches of snow.

In other words, it was a typical winter morning.

'This is an imprecise science,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a news briefing early Tuesday when asked about the forecast. He noted that last November, a storm that officials had not expected to be severe dropped seven feet of snow on Buffalo, in the western part of the state.

In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie joined Cuomo and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio in saying it was better to err on the side of caution: 'I was being told as late as 9 o'clock last night that we were looking at 20-inch accumulations in parts of New Jersey,” he said. 'We were acting based on what we were being told.”

'Fortunately,” he added, 'they were wrong.”

However, eastern Massachusetts, including the Boston area, was virtually shut down by heavy snowfall and high winds early Tuesday. The storm also continued to pound Rhode Island, eastern Connecticut and eastern Long Island, where snow accumulations of about 2 feet were expected.

As the storm pushed to the north, Maine Gov. Paul LePage declared a state of emergency and announced that all state offices would be closed Tuesday.

As of Tuesday morning, airlines across the region had canceled 4,615 flights, about 15 percent of all daily flights in the U.S., according to airline tracking site Flight Aware.