PACKING A PUNCH
At least 5 die as fierce nor’easter brings high winds, rain and snow along Atlantic coast
A fierce nor’easter pounded the Atlantic coast with hurricane force winds and sideways rain and snow Friday, flooding streets, grounding flights, stopping trains and leaving 1.6 million customers without power from North Carolina to Maine. At least five people were killed by falling trees or branches.
In Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf put National Guard troops on active duty to support the residents and first-responders in the eastern part of the commonwealth.
The storm submerged cars and toppled tractor-trailers, sent waves higher than a two-story house crashing into the Massachusetts coast, forced schools and businesses to close early and caused a rough ride for passengers aboard a flight that landed at Dulles Airport outside Washington.
“Pretty much everyone on the plane threw up,” a pilot wrote in a report to the National Weather Service.
The Eastern Seaboard was hammered by gusts exceeding 50 mph, with winds of 80 to 90 mph on Cape Cod. Ohio and upstate New York got a foot or more of snow. Boston and Rhode Island were expected to get 2 to 5 inches.
The storm killed at least five people, including a 77-year-old woman struck by a branch outside her home near Baltimore. Fallen trees also killed a man and a 6-year-old boy in different parts of Virginia, an 11-year-old boy in New York state and a man in Newport, R.I.
Floodwaters in Quincy, Mass., submerged cars, and police rescued people trapped in their vehicles. High waves battered nearby Scituate, making roads impassable and turning parking lots into ponds. More than 1,800 people alerted Scituate officials they had evacuated, The Boston Globe reported.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker activated 200 National Guard members to help victims.
Airlines canceled more than 2,800 flights, mostly in the Northeast. LaGuardia and Kennedy airports in New York City were brought to a near standstill.
President Donald Trump, who traveled to North Carolina for the funeral for the Rev. Billy Graham, was forced to fly out of Dulles instead of Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where Air Force One is housed, because of high winds.
Amtrak suspended service along the Northeast Corridor, from Washington to Boston. In New Jersey, a tree hit overhead wires, forcing the suspension of some New Jersey Transit commuter service.
Winds toppled a truck on Rhode Island’s Newport Pell Bridge and prompted officials to close several bridges in the state to commercial vehicles. A tractor-trailer also tipped over on New York’s Tappan Zee Bridge, snarling traffic for hours.
The federal government closed all offices in the Washington area for the day. Smithsonian museums also shut their doors.
Meteorologists confirmed Friday that the storm had become the second “bomb cyclone” in two months.
A Jan. 4 storm gained much attention in part because some meteorologists described it as a “bomb cyclone.” (The name essentially derives from how quickly the barometric pressure falls.)
“What makes this storm unique is that it’s intensifying very quickly,” said Dan Kottlowski, a senior meteorologist with Accu-Weather. “It will be in a position to stay strong for several days.”
The pressure drop, he said, had contributed to the especially strong winds felt Friday along much of the East Coast.
At Revere Beach, north of Boston, the tumultuous Atlantic Ocean was churning up on the shore, threatening to flood homes and businesses along the beach.
“The water is bad, really bad,” said Fernando Loaiza, the manager of Antonia’s restaurant.
Motorists were inching slowly along the boulevard that runs the length of the beach.
On Cape Cod and the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, the ocean was pounding so hard that forecasters warned of visible topographic changes taking place in the shoreline.
Heavy snowfall — more than 3 feet in some places — blanketed parts of New York overnight, closing public schools in Buffalo and Rochester.