Winter storms batter Central Canada and U.S. Northeast
NEW YORK — A blustery lateseason storm plastered much of Central Canada and the U.S. Northeast with sleet and snow Tuesday, paralyzing the Washington-to-Boston corridor but falling well short of the predicted snow totals in New York, Boston and Philadelphia.
The powerful nor’easter, which came after a stretch of unusually mild winter weather that had people thinking spring was already here, unloaded 30 to 60 centimetres in many places inland, grounded more than 6,000 flights in the U.S. and knocked out power to nearly a quarter-million customers from Virginia northward.
By the time it reached Massachusetts, it had turned into a blizzard, with near hurricane-force wind gusting over 115 kilometres an hour along the coast and waves crashing over the seawalls.
It was easily the biggest storm in a winter that had largely spared the U.S. Northeast.
While people mostly heeded dire warnings to stay home and off the roads, a 16-year-old girl was killed when she lost control of her car on a snowy road and hit a tree in Gilford, New Hampshire.
In East Hartford, Connecticut, a man died after being struck by a snowplow.
The storm closed schools in cities big and small, Amtrak suspended rail service and the post office halted mail delivery.
In Canada, a system that was originally to bring upward of 20 centimetres of snow to much of southwestern and central Ontario was absorbed into a lowpressure system that went on to hit eastern Ontario and parts of Quebec and New Brunswick.
Police were urging caution on the roads and air travellers were being warned to check the status of their flights before leaving home.
By Tuesday afternoon, Toronto’s Pearson International Airport was reporting 248 cancelled arriving flights and 267 cancelled departing flights. A spokeswoman said the cancellations were partly to do with weather in the Greater Toronto Area but were also linked to storms hitting the U.S. eastern seaboard. Ottawa’s airport was reporting several cancelled flights as well.