Old Man Winter grips U.S.
Massive storm sweeps from the Carolinas to New England, dumping up to 45 cm of snow
HARTFORD, Conn. — A massive winter storm swept from the Carolinas to Maine on Thursday, dumping snow along the coast and bringing strong winds that will usher in possible record-breaking cold.
Up to 45 cm of snow was expected in eastern New England. Blizzard warnings and states of emergency were in effect, schools and government offices closed for the day, thousands of flights were cancelled and motorists were warned to be careful as conditions worsened. Shelters were open as officials worried about power outages leaving people without any heat.
People who take to the roads are in for an “ugly, long commute” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
North Carolina authorities said two people died during the storm when their pickup truck ran off a snow-covered road and overturned into a creek Wednesday night in Moore County, which wasn’t expected to get any snow. The North Carolina Highway Patrol responded to 700 collisions and 300 other calls for service during the storm.
In New Jersey, Orlando Igmat’s car got stuck in a snowbank along the Garden State Parkway in Tinton Falls on Thursday morning as he drove to work at Verizon. He had to wait a half hour for a tow truck to pull him out.
“I just skidded on the road and then stopped me here so I can’t move right now anymore,” he said. “I didn’t expect it (the storm) was going to be a heavy one. That’s why I went to work today. I’m going to stay in a hotel tonight.”
Ankle deep snow and wind gusts approaching 80 km/h covered Maryland’s Ocean City Boardwalk, which was under a blizzard warning Thursday.
Eastern Massachusetts and most of Rhode Island were bracing for as much as 45 cm of snow, with snow falling at a rate of seven cm per hour possible. The National Weather Service warned of wind gusts hitting near 110 km/h.
The Eversource electric utility said more than 5,500 homes and businesses were without power at midmorning Thursday in Provincetown, Mass., on the outermost tip of Cape Cod, which was being lashed with hurricane-force wind gusts.
Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said more than 100 warming centres have been opened in 34 towns across the state. Connecticut has 634 state plow trucks and 250 contractors working to clear the highways.
The massive storm began two days ago in the Gulf of Mexico, first hitting the Florida Panhandle. It has prompted thousands of cancelled flights, shuttered schools and businesses and sparked fears of coastal flooding and power outages.
Wind gusts strong enough to down trees and power lines were predicted in places where the National Weather Service has issued blizzard warnings. They include the Delmarva Peninsula, which includes parts of Delaware, Virginia and Maryland; coastal New Jersey; eastern Long Island, N.Y.; and coastal eastern New England.
More than two-thirds of flights in and out airports in the New York City area and Boston were cancelled. The airline-tracking site FlightAware reported more than 3,200 cancelled flights within, into, or out of the U.S. on Thursday morning.
The storm shut down much of eastern Virginia, but some people were taking it in stride.
Mark Schoenenberger, 45, a NASA engineer who lives in Norfolk, Va., put on his cross country skis so he could make a half hour trip to the bagel shop for some breakfast for his family.
“It’s like ‘Yay, I get to go out,’ ” he said.
The only concern he seemed to have was telecommuting while his kids were home from school. But “it’s just noise,” he said.
In Norfolk, Jonathan Rogers and his brother, Jason Mitchell, got stuck in the snow at least twice while driving home Thursday morning after working the overnight shift at a local hospital.
“I was not staying,” said Rogers, 30, a floor technician. “I said the storm is not going to bother me.”
The storm will be followed by a wave of bracing cold.
“We think there are going to be scattered records broken for low temperatures,” said Peterson, adding how the weather service expects 28 major cities across New England, eastern N.Y., and the mid-Atlantic states will have record low temperatures by dawn on Sunday.
State and local officials urged residents to prepare for possible power outages and stay home so crews can clear roads of what could be as much as 30 cm or more of snow in some places.
The coastal Southeast got a rare blast of snow and ice on Wednesday. Schools were shut down just months after hurricane threats. In Charleston, S.C., the weather service reported 12 cm of snow, enough for Chris Monoc’s sons, ages four and two, to go sledding.
“They probably will be teenagers the next time something like this happens, and that’s kind of sad,” Monoc said. “But we’ll enjoy it while it’s here.”