Storm roars in with snow, rain, wind, biting cold
UNITED STATES: A massive winter storm roared into the East Coast on Thursday, threatening to dump as much as 45cm of snow from the Carolinas to Maine and unleashing hurricane-force winds and flooding that closed schools and offices and halted transportation systems.
Forecasters expected the storm to be followed immediately by a blast of face-stinging cold air that could break records in more than two dozen cities and bring wind chills as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius this weekend.
Blizzard warnings and states of emergency were in wide effect, and wind gusts hit more than 110kmh in some places. Eastern Massachusetts and most of Rhode Island braced for as much as 7.5cm of snow an hour.
Four people were killed in North and South Carolina after their vehicles ran off snow-covered roads, authorities said.
Another fatality was reported near Philadelphia when a car could not stop at the bottom of a steep, snow-covered hill and slammed into a commuter train. A passenger in the vehicle was killed.
More than 100,000 homes and businesses lost power at some point, depriving many people of heat. Connecticut opened more than 100 warming centres in 34 towns. More than half of the outages – mostly in the South were restored by yesterday afternoon.
The high winds caused coastal flooding from Massachusetts to Maine, overwhelming fishing piers, streets and restaurants. The rising waters also stranded people in homes and cars.
The Massachusetts National Guard said it helped rescue a woman and her two children from a car in Marshfield. Flooding in Newburyport forced evacuations on Plum Island, and the only road from the island to the mainland was closed, police said.
Schools, businesses and ferry services in parts of the Canadian coast were also shut. Nova Scotia Power said it had more than 1000 people at the ready in its biggest pre-storm mobilisation of personnel and resources.
Wind gusts strong enough to topple trees and power lines were predicted in the Delmarva Peninsula, which includes parts of Delaware, Virginia and Maryland; coastal New Jersey; eastern Long Island, New York; and coastal eastern New England.
The flight-tracking site FlightAware reported nearly 5000 cancelled flights across the US. Those included more than twothirds of flights in and out of New York City and Boston airports.
Rail service was affected too. Amtrak planned to operate a modified schedule between New York and Boston. Northeast Regional Service between Washington, D.C., and Newport News/Norfolk, Virginia, was cancelled. – AP
‘Spanking’ boss resigns
The chairman of an Alabama newspaper company resigned yesterday following accusations he assaulted female newsroom employees in the 1970s by spanking them. The Anniston Star reports that Brandt Ayers stepped down as chairman of the board of Consolidated Publishing Co. Ayers, now 82, said his resignation was in the ‘‘best interests of the newspaper and its mission’’. At least three women have said that Ayers, then a newsroom executive at the Anniston paper, assaulted them in the mid1970s, once using a metal ruler. In an earlier interview with his paper, Ayers claimed he was acting on a doctor’s advice when he spanked one woman.
Indian tycoon an ‘offender’
A New Delhi court on Thursday declared India’s flamboyant tycoon Vijay Mallya a ‘‘proclaimed offender’’ for failing to appear to answer allegations of money laundering by flouting foreign currency laws. The order paves the way for the government to take over Mallya’s businesses and real estate holdings. Mallya is currently in London where a court is hearing whether he should be extradited as sought by India. Mallya was once hailed as India’s version of British tycoon Richard Branson for his investments in a brewing and liquor company, an airline, a Formula One team and an Indian Premier League cricket club.
Second crash for seaplane
A seaplane that crashed north of Sydney this week, killing the Canadian pilot and his five British passengers, had a fatal crash more than 20 years ago, an investigator said. The de Havilland Beaver, manufactured in 1963 and owned by tourism business Sydney Seaplanes, crashed into the Hawkesbury River on Sunday after the group went to a New Year’s Eve lunch. The plane had previously been a crop duster that in 1996 clipped a hillside with a wing and cartwheeled northwest of Sydney, killing the pilot. Killed in Sunday’s crash were Compass Group chief executive Richard Cousins, 58, his fiancee Emma Bowden, 48, her 11-year-old daughter Heather, and his two sons William, 25, and Edward, 23, along with experienced pilot Gareth Morgan, 44.