After an evening of ferocious winds, by early Tuesday the storm had fully moved out of New York. The system, packing enormous snowfalls and gales, churned up through Maine and into Canada, leaving a cold tail as far south down the US east coast as the Carolinas.

The lifting of the siege meant that New York, the area hardest hit by the blizzard beginning Sunday, could finally start getting back to normal.

Snow plows and salt spreaders were hard at work before dawn in Manhattan battling through knee-high snow in many streets.

Officials however expected it would take several days for New York and its all-important transport hubs to be fully back on track following the sixth heaviest snowfall in city history.

"We know that many streets still have not been plowed -- and I saw that myself, yesterday, when I was visiting small businesses in the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a press conference updating the public on the clean-up.

He said the storm's ferocity created unprecedented challenges, especially cleaning out the mountains of snow left behind.

"Anyone who's been outside recently can see that this storm is not like any other we've had to deal with," said Bloomberg.

He said that New York police have removed some 1,000 vehicles from just three busily trafficked thoroughfares, a fraction of the stalled vehicles likely stranded on city roads.

"Our number one challenge is stuck ambulances and abandoned cars and buses," Bloomberg said.

"These abandoned vehicles are making it very difficult for our plows to move as quickly as they usually do, and that is one of the real differences between this storm and past ones that we've dealt with."

The three major area airports -- John F. Kennedy International, La Guardia and Newark International in New Jersey -- reopened late Monday, but passengers still had to face a huge backlog of flights and more delays.

A spokeswoman at the New York Port Authority, the office that manages regional airports and transit, told AFP that as of Tuesday 94 flights had been canceled at La Guardia, 281 canceled at JFK, and 423 canceled at Newark.

That was an improvement over the 1,400 flights canceled on Sunday, she said.

The backlog also affected arriving flights.

Conditions remained grueling for ground commuters, with bus, subway and train lines still snarled up.

"There continue to be major delays and in some cases suspensions in service across our transportation network," New York's Metropolitan Transport Authority said.

Passengers could only hope for better service than on Monday, when many found themselves at wind-blasted bus stops with no buses in sight, or in stricken subway cars, as they tried to get to work or home.

The rescue services often faced similar problems, as scores of police cars, ambulances, and tow trucks also got stuck in the snow and ice.

In eastern Canada officials on Tuesday said more than 12,000 homes were left without electricity and flights were severely disrupted at Toronto and Montreal airports.

In the southern United States, an unusual cold snap in New Orleans led to tragedy when eight homeless people died in an abandoned building.

The squatters said they had set alight trash in a large barrel to keep warm. Those who died were likely overcome by carbon monoxide as the building filled with smoke.

A combination of the heat and gasses likely caused the fire to engulf the building, officials said.

The storm was generally considered to be a bonanza for area ski resorts, some of which saw more than two feet of powder fall on their trails.

But conditions turned treacherous at Maine's Sugarloaf Mountain ski resort, where several people were injured Tuesday after high winds caused various ski lift chairs to derail.

Reports said injured skiers were being treated at area hospitals.

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