East Coast storm could send temperatures plunging to 40 below.
HARTFORD, Conn. — A massive winter storm roared into the East Coast on Thursday, threatening to dump as much as 18 inches 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 this weekend.
Blizzard warnings and states of emergency were in wide effect, and wind gusts hit more than 70 mph in some places. Eastern Massachusetts and most of Rhode Island braced for snow falling as fast as 3 inches per hour.
Three people were killed in North Carolina after their vehicles ran off snowcovered 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. No one on the train was hurt.
In New Jersey, Orlando Igmat’s car got stuck in a snowbank along the Garden State Parkway in Tinton Falls as he drove to work at Verizon. He waited a half hour for a tow truck to pull him out.
“I didn’t expect it (the storm) was going to be a heavy one. That’s why I went to work today. I’m going to stay in a hotel tonight,” he said.
Tens of thousands of power failures were reported, depriving many people of heat. More than 100 warming centers were open in 34 towns across Connecticut, Gov. Dannel Malloy said.
In Maine, the problem was a shortage of drivers to deliver heating fuel. Small independent fuel merchants were overwhelmed by customers who do not have automatic refill service, the Portland Press Herald reported.
The high winds caused coastal flooding from Massachusetts to Maine, and the rising waters stranded people in homes and cars.
The Masssachusetts 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.
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, N.Y.; and coastal eastern New England.
National Weather Service meteorologist Dan Peterson said record low temperatures were predicted for 28 major cities across New England, eastern New York and the mid-Atlantic states by dawn Sunday.
Boston expected a low around minus 11 overnight Saturday into Sunday. Portland, Maine, and Burlington, Vt., could see minus 16 and 19, respectively, the weather service said.