Snow piles up on storm-weary Northeast
Jonathan D. Woods / msnbc.com
BOSTON — Commuters up and down the East Coast began the all-too-familiar task of digging out cars, shoveling sidewalks and slogging and slipping through a treacherous morning commute on Thursday after a drawn-out storm dumped more than a foot of snow in some areas overnight, heaping more misery on a region that has been hit by one snowstorm after another.
Snow was still falling in parts of New England Thursday morning.
The storm started Wednesday with icy mix but overnight gave a wallop of heavy blowing snow in many places, stranding thousands of airplane passengers and leaving more than 400,000 customers in and around the nation’s capital without power.
Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington D.C.’s public schools granted kids a snow day, while motorists throughout the region were warned of dangerous road conditions. In New York City, the LIRR suspended passenger train service systemwide because of the storm. City bus service also was suspended and non-emergency city government offices were shut Thursday.
The storm also forced Amtrak to suspend services from New York to Boston and New Haven to Springfield. New York to Albany services operated on a reduced schedule, and Washington and New York trains were working with cancellations, the company said.
In Massachusetts, heavy snow caused a roof to collapse at a Garelick Farms creamery building in Lynn, trapping two people in their cars, NBC reported.
Two businesses in Connecticut, a nail salon and a garbage truck service, also suffered partially collapsed roofs because of the snow, Portland police said. There were no injuries in either location.
In Massachusetts, heavy snow caused a roof to collapse at a Garelick Farms creamery building in Lynn, trapping two people in their cars, NBC reported.
Two businesses in Connecticut, a nail salon and a garbage truck service, also suffered partially collapsed roofs because of the snow, Portland police said. There were no injuries in either location.
The New York area’s three major airports, among the nation’s busiest, saw more than 1,000 flights canceled. Philadelphia International Airport expected more than 1,000 passengers would be stranded because of cancellations.
The snow forced other airports throughout the region to cancel and delay flights.
In New York’s Central Park, 15 inches had fallen by 2 a.m. ET, taking the total for January to 32.3 inches and smashing an 86-year-old record for the month, according to the National Weather Service.
In other areas, 19 inches fell in parts of New Jersey and 6 inches at Baltimore/Washington International Airport and 9 in Washington Dulles International Airport. In and around Philadelphia, as much as 17 inches fell by the time the storm moved out Thursday morning.
Pablo Monsivais / AP
Together with Wednesday’s snowfall, Central Park and Newark have now doubled their annual snowfall averages, NBC reported. Huntsville, Ala., and Athens, Ga., have recorded four times the normal amount of snow, while Muscle Shoals, Ala., has recorded five times the normal amount.
‘Five-story snow dump’
Meteorologist Neil Strauss of the National Weather Service warned of traveling in the storm and said gusts in Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts could reach 40 mph to 50 mph. Parts of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island were expected to get thunderstorms, “somewhat unusual” for this time of year, he said.
In Kentucky, where several inches of snow fell, a man was killed by a truck that lost control in the treacherous conditions. The man had lost control on the same patch and got out of his pickup truck shortly before he was hit.
Police on New York’s Long Island said a pickup truck plowing a snow-covered parking lot struck and killed a woman Wednesday afternoon.
In Portsmouth, N.H., workers were nearly out of room to stash their plowed snow.
“We probably have a five-story snow dump right now,” said Portsmouth public works director David Allen. “It’s time to get a lift up on it and we could probably do a ski run.”
Obama delayed
Rain drenched the nation’s capital for most of the day and changed to sleet before it started snowing in earnest at mid-afternoon.
The snow and icy roads created hazardous conditions for President Barack Obama as he returned to the White House after a post-State of the Union trip to Manitowoc, Wis.
The wintry weather grounded Marine One, the helicopter that typically transports Obama to and from the military base where Air Force One lands.
Instead, the president was met at the plane by his motorcade, which spent an hour weaving through rush hour traffic already slowed by the storm. It normally takes the president’s motorcade about 20 minutes to travel between the base and the White House.
Officials urged residents in Washington and Maryland to stay off the roads as snow, thunder and lightning pounded the Mid-Atlantic region.
In D.C., Metro transit officials pulled buses off the roads as conditions deteriorated. Firefighters warned the heavy snow was bringing down power lines and causing outages.
PhotoBlog: View, discuss weather photosIn Pennsylvania, residents hunkered down as a one-two punch of the winter storm brought snow, sleet, and then more snow, which forecasters said could total a foot in some areas.
Philadelphia declared a snow emergency as of Wednesday evening, ordering cars removed from emergency routes.
When a commuter bus arrived more than an hour late Wednesday night in Philadelphia after a treacherous trip from New York, passengers applauded the driver.
Northwest, in Hatfield Township, Pa., residents were scared by thunder claps and blinding lightning in a rare thundersnow, a thunderstorm with heavy snow instead of rain.
Snowfall after snowfall
Since Dec. 14, snow has fallen eight times on the New York region — or an average of about once every five days. That includes the blizzard that dropped 20 inches on New York City and paralyzed travel after Christmas.
The city declared a weather emergency for the second time since the Dec. 26 storm, which trapped hundreds of buses and ambulances and caused a political crisis for the mayor.
An emergency declaration means any car blocking roads or impeding snowplows can be towed at the owner’s expense.
In New Jersey, state workers were sent home early and schools closed as the storm brought more snow than anticipated Wednesday morning.
A second band of snow began falling in the evening. The NJ Transit agency allowed customers to use bus tickets for rail travel, and vice versa, to get home any way they could.
Story: Fight back when your flight is canceledIn suburban Silver Spring, Md., nurse Tiffany Horairy said as she waited for a bus that she was getting tired of the constant pecking of minor or moderate storms.
“I’d rather get something like last year, with all the snow at once,” she said.
Through Tuesday, Boston had received 50.4 inches of snow this winter season, a nearly 270 percent increase over normal snowfalls of 18.8 inches for this time of year.
The central Massachusetts city of Worcester had gotten 49.3 inches while the norm is 28.7 inches.
Providence, R.I., had recorded 31.7 inches for the season, twice the norm of 15.7 inches.
Bradley International Airport in Connecticut had gotten 59.1 inches of snow, more than double the normal 22.8 inches, the National Weather Service has said.
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