Northeast clobbered with 4th snowstorm
NEW YORK — Spring kicked off with a wallop of wintry weather along the East Coast as the fourth nor’easter in three weeks dumped more than a foot of snow in some places 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, tractortrailers 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, tens of thousands of 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 the evening, and more than a foot near Allentown, Pennsylvania. New York had at least 5 inches 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.”
Roberto Sims expressed frustration with how quickly his just-cleared Philadelphia sidewalks became snowcovered once again.
“I give up and now the corner store doesn’t have any salt left,” he said. “I’ll just have to take my chances and hope for someone else on the block to do it later.”
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 white-knuckle driving.