Northeast braces for more bad weather
Deadly nor’easter slows, but will mingle with weaker storm
Work crews across the Northeast raced Sunday to restore power to more than 1.5 million homes and businesses in the wake of a powerful nor’easter as the area braced for more possible bad weather.
Tens of thousands of utility workers were on the job over the weekend after the muscular storm – known as a “bomb cyclone” for undergoing a rapid pressure drop – battered neighborhoods from Virginia to Maine. Snow showers and coastal flooding were expected in parts of upstate New York and New England on Sunday as another, much weaker storm arrived and mingled with the bomb cyclone, nicknamed “windmageddon” for the widespread damage and power outages caused by its strong winds.
“The snow can coat more areas on Sunday night with the highest chance for that to happen from Boston to Cape Cod,” AccuWeather senior meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski said. “Motorists may face slick patches for the Monday morning commute.”
The weather pattern that helped deliver the bomb cyclone will weaken slightly but not go away in the short term, according to AccuWeather. This pattern, known as a block, causes the routine west-to-east movement of storms to slow down. This slower speed allows the storms to strengthen in certain situations.
While the upcoming pattern will not be brutally cold, it may be just cold enough so that when storms come calling, some snow may be involved in parts of the Northeast, according to the site.
Meanwhile, crews were busy with the cleanup of snapped trees, damaged structures and piles of debris from Friday’s storm. Floodwaters had receded in most areas, but the storm had taken huge chunks out of the coastline in Massachusetts and other states.
“We’ve been here a long time and we’ve never seen it as bad as this,” Alex Barmashi, who lives in the hardhit village of Sagamore Beach in Massachusetts, told The Associated Press.
Up the coast in Scituate, Becky Smith watched as ocean waters started to fill up a nearby marina’s parking lot from her vantage point at the Barker Tavern, a restaurant overlooking the harbor.
“It looks like a war zone,” Smith told The Associated Press on Saturday, describing the scene in the coastal town near Boston where powerful waves dumped sand and rubble on roads and winds uprooted massive trees.
Maggie Carmany, general manager at Row 34 Restaurant in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood, said the area seemed to have recovered and the storm brought out the best nature in people.