A howling blizzard with wind gusts more than 70 mph heaped snow on the Boston area along with other stretches of lower New England and Long Island on Tuesday but failed to live up to the hype in Philadelphia and New York City, where buses and subways started rolling again in the morning.
In New England, the storm was a bitter, paralyzing blast, while in the New York metro area, it was a bust that left forecasters apologizing, some New Yorkers griping and officials defending their near-total shutdown on travel.
At least 2 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.