Northeast storm KOS power, closes schools
2 feet of snow in areas as driving hazardous
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A winter storm dumped heavy, wet snow in parts of the Northeast on Tuesday, causing tens of thousands of power outages, widespread school closings, dangerous driving conditions and a plane to slide off a taxiway.
The storm’s path included parts of New England, upstate New York, northeastern Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey. Snow totals by the time it winds up Wednesday were expected to range from a few inches to a few feet, depending on the area.
About 2 feet of snow fell in parts of northern New York and the Catskill Mountains, and Gov. Kathy Hochul said some areas could get an additional foot of snow by Wednesday morning. In New Hampshire, state police asked drivers to stay off the roads Tuesday afternoon due to whiteout conditions. State Police said they had dealt with more than 120 crashes.
In Derry, New Hampshire, firefighters and police officers used chain saws, shovels and their bare hands to rescue a girl who was trapped under a fallen tree. Authorities said the girl had been playing outside near a parent who was clearing snow when the tree fell on her. The girl was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
All northbound lanes of Interstate 95 on the Piscataqua River Bridge between Maine and New Hampshire were shut down after two tractor trailer trucks became stuck on the bridge due to icy conditions.
In the Berkshires in western Massachusetts, heavy, wet snow made driving treacherous, weighing down tree limbs and causing several spinouts. The storm dumped at least a foot of wintry mix in some areas.
Further east in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, where as much as 18 inches of snow was reported to have fallen, Jean Guerrer said the conditions were too dangerous for him to drive to work as a Boston-based taxi driver.
A Delta Air Lines plane veered off a paved surface as it taxied for takeoff from a Syracuse, New York, airport Tuesday morning. Flight 1718, which was bound for New York City’s Laguardia Airport, slid into a grassy area north of the runway, forcing passengers off the plane and onto buses back to the terminal, according to airport officials. No one was injured and the airport remained open.
Delta said the plane carried 58 customers and a flight crew of five.
More than 400 flights traveling to, from or within the U.S. were canceled Tuesday, with Boston and New York City area airports seeing the highest number of scrubbed flights, according to the flight tracking website Flightaware.
The National Weather Service said that in New York, 2 inches of snow per hour or more was falling in higher elevations in the eastern Catskills through the mid-hudson Valley, central Taconics and Berkshires. Wet, heavy snow snapped tree branches and downed power lines across New York’s capital region with power outages hitting homes and businesses in the Albany area.
The snowfall totals will be among the highest of the season, said meteorologist Andrew Orrison of the weather service office in College Park, Maryland.
While higher elevations get snow, authorities warned residents in coastal areas to watch for possible flooding because of heavy rains. The National Weather Service in New York said wind gusts could reach 50 mph across Long Island and lower Connecticut.
Rain was turning into snow across parts of New England with winds picking up and power outages reported across the region. In New Hampshire, it was Election Day for town officeholders, but more than 70 communities postponed voting because of the storm.