WASHINGTON, Jan 4, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - After a bruising holiday week of
flight cancellations and record surges in Covid-19 cases, a powerful winter
snow storm Monday further snarled US transport, shuttering the federal
government and bringing Washington to a standstill.

   The storm packed an unexpectedly fierce punch and appeared to have caught
much of the capital city off guard, temporarily stranding US President Joe
Biden on Air Force One and dumping up to nine inches (23 centimeters) of snow
on Washington.

   Many Americans have been scrambling to return home after the Christmas and
New Year period, with thousands of flights cancelled due to bad weather and
airline staffing woes blamed in part on rising coronavirus infections among
crews.

   More than 4,900 flights Monday, the first workday of 2022, were cancelled
globally as of 8:30 pm (0130 GMT Tuesday), including 3,173 flights within,
into or out of United States, according to flight-tracking website
FlightAware.

   The latest cancellations -- along with 6,775 US flight delays Monday --
compounded holiday travel misery.

   While much of the US Mid-Atlantic was caught in the bad weather,
conditions were acute in the capital and neighboring states of Maryland and
Virginia, where accumulation in some spots topped 12 inches, according to
meteorologists who described it as the region's biggest snow storm in at
least two years.

   "This is a heavy snow," said Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, where
plows scrambled to clear snow, trees and power lines tumbled, the US Senate
postponed votes and health officials cancelled Covid testing.

   "If it is not absolutely necessary for you to go out, stay home and off
the roads," she warned.

   Airports were experiencing blizzard conditions, with authorities at
Washington and Baltimore airports reportedly ordering temporary ground stops
during a midday whiteout.

   Biden himself was snowed in aboard his presidential aircraft after landing
at Joint Base Andrews near Washington, with deboarding delayed by half an
hour so the tarmac could be plowed.

   The winter blast offered a distraction from Washington's endless political
divides: in bucolic scenes, children were seen sledding on Capitol Hill,
while adventurers cross-country skied on the National Mall.

   - 'I need to go home!' -

   But for everyday passengers, holiday travel morphed into a nightmare.  
"Hey @SouthwestAir can you stop cancelling every single flight out of DCA
(Washington National Airport)? I need to go home!" passenger Kyle Hughes
wrote on Twitter.

   Federal workers in and around the capital were told to stay home. But with
telework becoming routine during the two-year coronavirus pandemic, it was
unclear how much of the government would be affected.

   Schools around the region were also closed due to snow.

   Airports in Chicago and Atlanta -- major transit hubs -- as well as
Denver, Detroit, Houston and Newark were hard hit over the weekend. By Monday
the east coast airports in New York, Washington and Baltimore were scrapping
the most flights.

   A woman named Kayla described her own ordeal Sunday: "I was supposed to
get home at 10:30 yesterday morning and at this point I've had 3 flights
cancelled and one delayed to the point where I missed my connection."

   Around the world, air traffic has suffered snarls over the holidays
because of airline staffing issues linked to the spread of the highly
contagious Omicron coronavirus variant.

   Many pilots and flight attendants have called in sick after testing
positive or being forced to quarantine due to contact with someone who has
the virus.