Quick-moving winter storm brings snow, disruption to Northeast
HARTFORD, Conn. — A rapidly advancing winter storm that hit the Northeast on Tuesday brought significant snowfall to some areas while others got less than expected.
At least one person died, accidents were reported on slippery roads, airline flights were canceled or delayed, and many school districts closed or switched to remote learning — or at least tried to switch.
Some areas of Pennsylvania and Connecticut were blanketed in 15 inches of fluffy snow, while New York City’s Central Park only saw about 3 inches of slushy snow, according to National Weather Service reports.
“It’s been a quiet winter, so it’s kind of welcoming,” Ricky Smith said as he made his way to a construction job in New York City. “I just hope nobody gets hurt.”
In New York City, the nation’s largest school district opted to shift to remote learning instead of giving students and staff a snow day, sparking criticism by many. And when classes began, technical problems prevented many of the 915,000 students from logging in, exacerbating the discontent.
More than 1,000 flights were canceled Tuesday morning, mostly at the airports in the New York City area and in Boston. Accidents were reported across the region, and several states banned tandem and empty tractor-trailers from highways.
There were more than 145,000 power outages reported Tuesday morning in Pennsylvania and several thousand in New Jersey, but few outages in New York and New England, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us.
Authorities in Newberry Township, Pa., said a man operating a snowmobile was killed when he hit a downed utility line around 8 a.m. Tuesday.
Throughout the region, officials urged people to take precautions and stay off the roads.
At a news conference, New York City officials said that despite the snow predictions, they had no plans to relocate people from several large, heated tent shelter complexes built for thousands of homeless migrants.