March madness: Late blast slams Northeast
Snow, high winds smother Washington-to-Boston corridor.
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 Check to see flight status online at 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 over 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 gum- ball-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-yearold 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.
President Donald Trump has taken to calling his Mar-a-Lago spread on Palm Beach the “Winter White House.”
Palm Beach County Commissioner Dave Kerner wonders if it should have another name: “municipal service benefit unit.”
Kerner’s name is far less catchy than Trump’s, but it could give the county a way to impose a special tax on Trump to reimburse the county for the millions it has shelled out for road management and security assistance during the president’s frequent trips here.
The tax would not be a prop- President paid $38 million in income taxes in 2005,
erty tax, Kerner said. Instead, it would be a tax pegged to the value of any “special benefit” the county has provided to Mar-a-Lago’s owner — Trump.
At Kerner’s request, County At t o r n e y D e n i s e N i e ma n i s researching the idea of the municipal service benefit unit, which