MOR’ EASTER? WE’VE HAD ENOUGH SNOW!
Northeast gets clobbered with fourth snowstorm in 3 weeks
Spring kicked off with a wallop of wintry weather along the East Coast as the fourth nor’easter in three weeks rolled in with the potential for a foot of snow Wednesday.
The first full day of the season included scenes of snow falling on blooming daffodils in suburban Philadelphia, New Yorkers twisting to fix blownout umbrellas, tractor-trailers stuck on snowy highways and kids making their first snowman of spring.
“I want warm! I’m done with the cold,” said Yana Damoiseau, a pedestrian in New York City.
Airlines canceled more than 4,000 flights, an estimated 15,000 customers lost power from West Virginia northward, and school districts throughout the Northeast called off classes ahead of the storm. At least two traffic deaths were reported in New Jersey and on New York’s Long Island.
Up to 8 inches of snow had fallen in some Philadelphia suburbs by mid-afternoon, and 13 inches outside Allentown. New York had at least 5 inches ahead of the evening commute and braced for a total of 6 to 12. Forecasters said Boston could get 6 inches as the storm moved into New England.
“Winter will not relent,” said Pancho Ortega, who was clearing the sidewalk outside his soon-to-open restaurant in Philadelphia. “I don’t like the shoveling part. I’m ready for it to kind of go away.”
Multiple accidents were reported throughout the region as travel on roads became treacherous.
In Limerick, accidents were reported at South Township Line Road and Walnut Street at 12:21 p.m. along with accidents on Route 422 and Airport Road overpass at 12:30 p.m. and one accident at Main Street and Summerdale Lane at 12:06 p.m.
In Pottstown, one accident was reported at West King Street and Route 100 northbound at 12:33 p.m. in addition to an accident in Lower Pottsgrove at Maple Glen Circle and Pine Tree Court at 12:53 p.m.
An accident involving a snow mobile and a plow truck was also reported at around 2:45 p.m. at Christina Circle in Lower Frederick. According to the dispatch, fire and emergency medical responders were called to the scene.
At around 11:30 a.m., the dispatch reported that a
tractor trailer was blocking part of the ramp and the road at the Route 422 bypass and Route 422 ramp westbound to Route 100 north after snowy conditions caused it to get stuck. Although commercial vehicles have been banned during the winter storm on some major roads as of Tuesday night, no such restrictions have been placed on Route 422.
PennDOT imposed a ban on commercial vehicles and ordered speed restrictions on many Pennsylvania highways. Similar restrictions were in place most of the day on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Gov. Tom Wolf said more than 450 Pennsylvania National Guard soldiers were placed on standby or are were staged for possible missions throughout Wednesday night during the storm.
Wolf said Wednesday afternoon that snow is expected to continue through the night and into early Thursday morning. He says residents — especially those in the southern and eastern portions of the commonwealth — should continue to avoid unnecessary travel.
The storm was just the latest to come off the assembly line in the Northeast since March 2. Many people’s tolerance for wintry weather was already worn thin, after repeated power outages and lots of whiteknuckle driving.
“I didn’t think I’d still need to keep storm stuff in my car in late March, but what are you going to do?” Wilson Collins, of Toms River, New Jersey, said as he checked his car trunk to make sure he had a shovel, a blanket and other emergency items. “I just hope this is finally it.”
In New Jersey, some streets were flooded along the shore, including one in Point Pleasant Beach where a pair of ducks cruised back and forth through an intersection where a plastic garbage can bobbed in the waves.
More than 1,200 flights in the New York City area alone were canceled, with a ripple effect on air travel around the country. On the ground, Amtrak scaled back service on the Northeast corridor between Washington and Boston, and some states banned trucks from major highways.
The storm also unloaded snow on Virginia and West Virginia as it pushed into the Northeast. Virginia reported more 240 traffic accidents since midnight. In West Virginia, more than 6,000 customers were without power in the afternoon.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for New York City and its suburbs and said 5,500 utility workers and 300 National Guard members were standing by. The state also sent generators, light towers, plows and salt to areas that have already endured multi-day, stormrelated power outages this month.