Blizzard blankets US Northeast, disrupting traffic, flights
US storm causes power outages, road blocks, flight cancelations; Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Maine declare state of emergency
A massive storm generating hurricane-force winds and blizzard conditions pounded New York-to-Boston corridor, grounding flights, closing workplaces, disrupting thousands of flights, shutting down roads and mass transit and blanketing the region with heavy snowfall.
By early Saturday, more than 23 inches (60 centimeters) of snow had fallen in parts of central Connecticut, and more than 21 inches covered parts of Randolph in southeastern Massachusetts.
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The storm is being blamed on at least four deaths in New York and Canada.
Throughout the Northeast, more than 600,000 homes and businesses lost electricity as wet, heavy snow, freezing rain and howling winds caused havoc.
Hundreds of thousands of people lost power, with more than 200,000 reported outages in Massachusetts, more than 100,000 in Rhode Island, and 30,000 in Connecticut, according to local utilities.
Massachusetts (Photo: AP)
Forecasters warned that about 2 feet (60 cm) of snow would blanket most of the Boston area with some spots getting as much as 30 inches (76 cm). New York was due to get about a foot (30 cm) in some areas, while heavy snowfall was also expected in Connecticut and Maine.
Winds reached 35 to 40 miles per hour (56 to 64 km per hour) by Friday afternoon and forecasters expected gusts up to 60 mph (97 kph) as the evening wore on.
The storm prompted the governors of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and Maine to declare states of emergency in the face of the fearsome snowstorm. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick took the rare step of announcing a ban on most car travel starting Friday afternoon, while Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy closed the state's highways to all but emergency vehicles.
By Friday night some commuter trains that run between New York City and Westchester County, Long Island and Connecticut had already been suspended. Amtrak suspended railroad service between New York, Boston and points north on Friday afternoon.
In many cases, authorities ordered non-essential government workers to stay home, urged private employers to do the same, told people to prepare for power outages and encouraged them to check on elderly or disabled neighbors.
"People need to take this storm seriously," said Malloy, Connecticut's governor. "Please stay home once the weather gets bad except in the case of real emergency."
The storm also posed a risk of flooding at high tide to areas still recovering from Superstorm Sandy last October.
"Many of the same communities that were inundated by Hurricane Sandy's tidal surge just about 100 days ago are likely to see some moderate coastal flooding this evening," New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
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