U.S. digs out after snowstorm

The eastern United States is struggling to return roads and airports to normal after blizzards blanketed the region and stranded thousands during the busy holiday season.

The heavy snowfall and fierce winter conditions have prompted officials in six U.S. coastal states stretching from North Carolina to Maine to declare a state of emergency.

As of Wednesday morning, most flights from the New York City area's three airports were taking off and landing as scheduled as the city continues to dig out from the weekend's heavy snowfall.

Meanwhile, the number offlights into and out of airports inBoston and Philadelphia have also resumed to normal levels. But officials at the airportswarnedweary travellers lined up for flights home that the backlog could last several days.

As many as 10,000 flightshave beencancelled in the northeast region since Saturday, according to airline officials.

Cathay Pacific said it is looking into why passengers were stuck for hours on the tarmac at JFK International Airport in New York after arriving early Tuesday.

Passengers on one flight from Vancouver did not deplane until about 12 hours after the flight had landed.

Other travellers at New York's LaGuardia Airportcomplained of having to wait several hours for their luggage to be unloaded from aircraft because the weather prevented baggage handlers from coming to work, the CBC's David Common reported from the airport.

Anger mountsin NYC

New York City residentshave expressed frustrationoverwhat they say was aslow and haphazard snow-clearing operation thatrendered some city streets impassable for ambulances and other emergency services.

City officials, while not making any promises, said they hoped to have streets cleared by later in the day Wednesday.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked residents to bepatient with thesnow-clearing operations,butalso saidhe was "extremely dissatisfied" with the performance of the city's emergency system in the wake of the blizzard.

"It's just a fact of life that for the less sparsely populated areas, it is going to take longer," Bloomberg told reporters on Wednesday.

"It isn't that we don't care; it's just that you have to do as much good as you can with the resources you have."

Some 1,000 stuck vehicles had beentowed from three major New York City-area expressways alone, the mayor added.