Winter travel time: East Coast gets buried, disrupts travel

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A monstrous storm ran up the East Coast yesterday, burying parts of the country in more than a foot of snow and making life a living hell for road-trippers and airline passengers. As of last night, five deaths were reportedly caused by the storm. Fourteen inches fell on Reagan National Airport, setting a single-day record for December. Several hundred thousand homes in West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina lost power. Airports in New York and Washington, D.C. canceled flights and had to cope with long delays.

It’s winter travel season again, in case you didn’t know.

The first major storm of the year was nothing short of severe. Some drivers ditched their cars on the side of the road, giving up any attempt to compete with the snowstorm. Meanwhile, malls were empty, as many didn’t bother trying to compete with the weather.