The Region Digs Out

Future generations won't know it as "The Blizzard of 2010.''

Conditions around the metropolitan area didn't qualify for that status -- but they came close, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Nelson Vaz.

Snow totals ranged from 10 to 16 inches around New York City, Long Island and northeastern New Jersey. The lower Hudson Valley got 6 to 12 inches.

Schools were reopening and transit was getting back on schedule Thursday as New York City and its suburbs continued to dig out from the winter blast.

The storm claimed at least one life in New Jersey. A 54-year-old man from East Brunswick died after a large tree branch hit him on the head while he was snow blowing his driveway, police say.

Elsewhere in the tri-state, the massive storm's wrath was contained for the most part.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city worked overtime to clear streets, especially the major thoroughfares. But Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty asked New Yorkers to be patient for another day in dealing with piles of snow at street corners and bus stops.

The party's over for New York City's 1.1 million public school students following Wednesday's rare snow day. Just north of the city, kids in Yonkers got another day off Thursday.

Wind gusts sometimes hit 40 mph Wednesday, with visibility as low as quarter of a mile.

The storm closed courts, the United Nations headquarters and the city's zoos.

The weather service had issued a 24-hour blizzard warning early Wednesday.

During an official blizzard, winds frequently gust to at least 35 mph, and visibility is a quarter-mile or less. But that has to occur simultaneously for three hours straight. On Thursday, it may have happened for ``a couple of hours'' in some places, Vaz said.

Practically speaking, though, it was still a heck of a storm.

Vaz said he'd had a "rough drive'' to work for his overnight shift in Upton, on eastern Long Island. When he got home to Manorville on Thursday morning, he faced more shoveling.

"It's a heavy, wet snow," said the weatherman. "That's the one where it's a lot harder to shovel -- a lot more strenuous."

His implement of choice? "A regular, old-fashioned shovel."

In New Jersey, NJ Transit buses won't be making their rounds in south Jersey Thursday.

Spokesman Dan Stessel says service remains suspended because the roads are too dangerous.

NJ Transit bus service will resume in northern New Jersey at 6 a.m., but riders should expect delays.

Electric crews were working to restore power to 80,000 homes and businesses that lost electricity, but the NJ Transit agency said it planned to resume bus routes Thursday morning and open nearly all train stations so residents could try to get to work.

For more information on public transit, check with the MTA, PATH and NJTransit.