Blizzard bears down on New England, snarling travel

BOSTON: The third winter storm in two weeks roared into coastal New England yesterday, with up to 51 cm of forecast snow causing school closures, flight cancellations and raising the risk of power outages.

The nor’easter follows two storms that rumbled up the East Coast this month, killing at least nine people and knocking out power to about 2.4 million people and businesses at their peak.

The storm stretched from New York state across Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine, with national forecasters warning of blizzard conditions, where high winds make travel dangerous, stretching from coastal Massachusetts through Maine.

“We’re anticipating that we’ll be seeing through the mid- to late morning and probably into midafternoon snowfall rates of one to three inches per hour,” said Bob Thompson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton, Massachusetts.

He warned that further power outages were likely in southeastern Massachusetts.

Schools in Boston and Providence, Rhode Island, were shut yesterday, Maine’s state legislature cancelled its session, Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy closed all government offices and the passenger rail line Amtrak halted service between Boston and New York.

Close to 1,500 US flights were cancelled with the hardest-hit airport Boston Logan, where about four out of five flights were called off. — Reuters