Some flights resume in East, rail service halted
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. airlines resumed limited operations on Sunday at some East Coast airports while New York air and subway service remained closed as the city assessed the impact of Hurricane Irene.
Other regional transportation infrastructure came back to life along the mid-Atlantic with tunnels and bridges reopening and major highways operating close to normal although wind advisories remained in effect. Many secondary roads were blocked by fallen trees, downed power lines and flooding.
Commuter trains around major cities and passenger railroad Amtrak were halted in the Northeast. Amtrak crews inspected nearly 400 miles (644 km) of track and overhead wiring.
Boston braced for the arrival of tropical storm winds and rain later on Sunday. The newest flight cancellations were recorded at Logan airport. The city shut down the "T" bus and subway service at 8 a.m. EDT with plans to reopen on Monday.
New York and Boston had never previously halted subway lines preemptively for weather.
With skies clearing and damage from Irene minimal, a few arrivals descended on Washington's three airports -- Reagan National, Dulles in Virginia and BWI in Maryland.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said airport control towers in the Northeast appeared to escape damage, and were staffed. Runways were inspected and cleared for operation.
However, the biggest airlines cancelled virtually all service for the day throughout the Northeast and hoped to restart flights in earnest on Monday. It could take a couple of days to get operations fully back to normal, aviation officials said.
More than 11,000 flights were cancelled from Friday through Monday, according to the online tracking service Flightaware.com. About half of those were at New York-area airports that handle about 6,000 flights per day and 100 million passengers a year.
Carriers heavily affected include US Airways, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and United Airlines.
Air service at New York's three big airports remained halted Sunday afternoon although control towers were staffed and ready to handle flights once airlines began to restart schedules, the FAA said.
Airlines abandoned Northeast airports ahead of the storm to keep their planes away from hurricane-force winds and torrential rains.
Container ships that rode out the storm at sea waited for U.S. Coast Guard approval to head for big mid-Atlantic ports that were closed during the storm. Terminals gradually reopened and hoped to resume normal operations by late on Sunday or Monday.
Cruise ships adjusted schedules as well. Carnival Corp pushed back departure of the Pride on its weekly cruise from Baltimore by one day to Monday.
U.S. Navy ships ordered out of Norfolk, Virginia, should start returning to port on Monday, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell said.
(Reporting by John Crawley and Lisa Lambert; Editing by Sandra Maler)