Storm extended some Shore vacations

ATLANTIC CITY - For many visitors to the Jersey Shore, the weekend nor'easter that dumped a near-record snowfall was a belated Christmas gift from Mother Nature.

The official accumulation of 19 inches at Atlantic City International Airport was just an inch less than the high set there in March 1947, according to the National Climatic Data Center. The snowfall easily broke the airport's 11.4-inch record for a December storm, set last year.

For those without sidewalks to shovel or commutes to worry about, the extreme conditions were a fine excuse to keep their vacation festivities going.

"Atlantic City is a party town, and this was a holiday weekend, so you had a lot of people out looking for the next party even though the weather was really bad," said Tom Foley, the city's director of emergency management.

"We recommended that once people got to where they were going, they just stay there and not venture out anymore until the storm was over and could be cleaned up."

Hotel casinos reported a weekend occupancy rate of about two-thirds capacity, normal for a holiday weekend. But many more guests than usual extended their stays by one or two nights, according to officials.

"I think once people are here, they kind of take the bad weather in stride. They just want to stay inside until the scary weather is over," said Marie Rivera, a reservations clerk at the Trump Plaza.

About 100 casino patrons probably wished they had done that. They left on two buses late Sunday afternoon only to become stuck in a traffic jam on the Garden State Parkway in Holmdel. The last of the passengers, who were headed to Manhattan, were rescued around 11:30 a.m. Monday. Emergency vehicles would have gotten there sooner had it not been for all the abandoned vehicles and snow drifts of up to five feet, according to state police.

At the storm's height on Sunday, snow fell at the Shore at a rate of an inch an hour. Blowing snow made some roads impassable, and scattered power outages in Atlantic, Cape May and Ocean Counties left about 8,200 homes and businesses in the dark and cold for a time.

With wind gusts of up to 50 m.p.h. on Monday, officials recommended that people continue to stay off the roads. No injuries or evacuations were reported.