The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
‘Real kick in the rear’: Snow blasts Northeast
Storm fell short of expectations, still biggest of winter.
NEW YORK — A blustery late-season storm plastered the Northeast with sleet and snow Tuesday, paralyzing much of the Washington-to-Boston corridor after a stretch of unusually mild winter weather that had people thinking spring had already arrived.
The powerful nor’easter fell well short of the predicted snow totals in New York and Philadelphia but unloaded 1 to 2 feet in many places inland, grounded more than 6,000 flights and knocked out power to nearly a quarter-million customers from Virginia northward.
By the time it reached Massachusetts, it had turned into a blizzard, with near hurricane-force wind gusting more than 70 mph along the coast and waves crashing over the seawalls. Up to a foot of snow was expected in the Boston area.
It was easily the biggest storm in a previously merciful winter that had mostly spared the Northeast.
“It’s horrible,” said retired gumball-machine technician Don Zimmerman, of Lemoyne, Pa., using a snowblower to clear the sidewalk along his block. “I thought winter was out of here . ... It’s a real kick in the rear.”
While people mostly heeded warnings to stay home and off the roads, police said a 16-year-old girl was killed when she lost control of her car on a snowy road and hit a tree in Gilford, N.H.
The storm closed schools in cities big and small, Amtrak suspended service and the postal service halted mail delivery.
Philadelphia and New York City got anywhere from a few inches of snow to around half a foot before the storm switched over mostly to sleet; forecasters had predicted a foot or more. In New Jersey, which saw rain or just a little snow in many areas, Gov. Chris Christie called the storm an “underperformer.” But officials warned of dangerous ice.
Inland areas, meanwhile, were hit hard. Harrisburg, Pa., and Worcester, Mass., received a foot or more of snow. The Binghamton, N.Y., area got more than 2 feet, while Vernon, N.J., had at least 19 inches.
The storm came just days after the region saw temperatures climb into the 60s, and less than a week before the official start of spring. February, too, was remarkably warm.
“The winters seem to be upside down now. January and February are nice and then March and April seem to be more wintry than they were in the past,” said Bob Clifford, who ventured out on an early morning grocery run for his family in Altamont, near Albany, N.Y.
His advice: “Just hide inside. Hibernate.”
In the nation’s capital, non-essential federal employees were given the option of reporting three hours late, taking the day off or working from home. The city got less than 2 inches of snow.
A few earlier, workers on Washington’s National Mall had been making plans to turn on the fountains.
“Obviously all that has to come to an abrupt stop until we get all the snow cleared,” said Jeff Gowen, the acting facility manager for the National Mall and Memorial Parks. “The cherry blossoms, they’re right on the cusp of going into bloom here. I had a feeling this was going to happen.”
Kelly Erskine, a 28-yearold coffee shop manager from Whitman, Mass., about 25 miles south of Boston, made it almost all the way through the winter without a show shovel. She went to Walmart on Tuesday morning to buy one.
“I live in an apartment complex and they usually take care of the shoveling, but they sent a letter to us and said, ‘Expect a lot of snow.’ I knew from the letter that I’d have to go out and buy a shovel,” she said.
As the storm closed in, the National Weather Service used terms like “life-threatening” and urged people to “shelter in place,” language that has come to be associated with mass shootings. In the end, the line between snow and rain shifted slightly to the west, sparing some of the Northeast’s big cities.
Government meteorologists realized by late Monday afternoon that there was a good chance the storm wasn’t going to produce the giant snow totals predicted. But they didn’t change their forecast for fear people would mistakenly think the storm was no longer dangerous, said Greg Carbin, chief of forecast operations at the Weather Prediction Center.
In Pennsylvania, snowplows and state troopers escorted a 23-month-old child in need of a heart transplant 80 miles between hospitals. Gov. Tom Wolf said the youngster made the trip safely.
In Narragansett, R.I., high winds buckled a state-owned wind turbine. In New York City, two homes under construction collapsed near the waterfront in Far Rockaway. No injuries were reported.
And two ponies broke out of their stables and roamed the snowy streets of Staten Island until an off-duty police officer wrangled them with straps normally used to tow cars and tied them to a lamppost. They were taken back to the stables.
“We want to thank our cowboy officer,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said.