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| A man walks his dog past the snow covered "Boy and Bird" fountain in the Boston Public Garden in Boston, Friday, Feb. 8, 2013. Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick declared a state of emergency Friday and banned travel on roads as of 4 p.m. as a blizzard that could bring nearly 3 feet of snow to the region began to intensify. As the storm gains strength, it will bring "extremely dangerous conditions" with bands of snow dropping up to 2 to 3 inches per hour at the height of the blizzard, Patrick said. |
BOSTON (AP)
-- A storm that forecasters warned could be a blizzard for the history
books began clobbering the New York-to-Boston corridor on Friday,
grounding flights, closing workplaces and sending people rushing to get
home ahead of a possible 1 to 3 feet of snow.
From
New Jersey to Maine, shoppers crowded into supermarkets and hardware
stores to buy food, snow shovels, flashlights and generators, something
that became a precious commodity after Superstorm Sandy in October.
Others gassed up their cars, another lesson learned all too well after
Sandy. Across much of New England, schools closed well ahead of the
first snowflakes.
"This is a storm of major proportions," Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said. "Stay off the roads. Stay home."
By
Friday evening, Boston had just 2.5 inches of snow and New York City
had just 2, but parts of southeastern Massachusetts had more than 6
inches and central Rhode Island had more than 8. And the National
Weather Service warned the worst was still to come.
The
wind-whipped snowstorm mercifully arrived at the start of a weekend,
which meant fewer cars on the road and extra time for sanitation crews
to clear the mess before commuters in the New York-to-Boston region of
roughly 25 million people have to go back to work. But it could also
mean a weekend cooped up indoors.
Rainy Neves,
a mother of two in Cambridge, just west of Boston, did some last-minute
shopping at a grocery store, filling her cart to the brim.
"Honestly,
a lot of junk - a lot of quick things you can make just in case lights
go out, a lot of snacks to keep the kids busy while they'd be inside
during the storm, things to sip with my friends, things for movies," she
said. "Just a whole bunch of things to keep us entertained."
In
heavily Catholic Boston, the archdiocese urged parishioners to be
prudent about attending Sunday Mass and reminded them that, under church
law, the obligation "does not apply when there is grave difficulty in
fulfilling this obligation."
Halfway through
what had been a mild winter across the Northeast, blizzard warnings were
posted from parts of New Jersey to Maine. The National Weather Service
said Boston could get close to 3 feet of snow by Saturday evening, while
most of Rhode Island could receive more than 2 feet, most of it falling
overnight Friday into Saturday. Connecticut was bracing for 2 feet, and
New York City was expecting as much as 14 inches.
By
Friday evening, the New York-to-Boston corridor was experiencing
blizzard-like conditions, with blowing, swirling snow and freezing rain.
Early snowfall was blamed for a 19-car pileup in Cumberland, Maine,
that caused minor injuries. In Rhode Island, 34,000 homes and businesses
lost power.
Forecasters said wind gusts up to
75 mph could cause more widespread power outages and whip the snow into
fearsome drifts. Flooding was expected along coastal areas still
recovering from Superstorm Sandy, which hit New York and New Jersey the
hardest and is considered Jersey's worst natural disaster.
Meteorologist
Jeff Masters, of Weather Underground, said the winter storm was a
collision of two storms and may end up among the Boston area's Top 5
most intense ever.
"When you add two respectable storms together, you're going to get a knockout punch with this one," he said.
It
could break Boston's all-time snowstorm record of 27.6 inches, set in
2003, forecasters said. The storm also comes almost 35 years to the day
after the Blizzard of '78, a ferocious storm that dropped 27 inches of
snow, packed hurricane-force winds and claimed dozens of lives.
Masters
said the region could get a break from warmer air trailing behind that
is expected to push temperature up to the 40s by Monday.
"It's
going to be not that difficult to dig out, compared to maybe some other
nor'easters in the past, where it stayed cold after the storm went
through," he said.
Drivers were urged to stay
off the streets lest their cars get stuck, preventing snowplows and
emergency vehicles from getting through. New York City ran extra
commuter trains to help people get home before the brunt of the storm
hit.
Amtrak stopped running trains in cities
around the Northeast on Friday afternoon. Airlines canceled more than
4,300 flights through Saturday, and New York City's three major airports
and Boston's Logan Airport shut down.
Interstate
95 was closed to all but essential traffic in Rhode Island, where the
governor said power outages remained the biggest threat.
"With
tree branches laden with heavy, wet snow, the winds picking up and the
temperatures plunging all at the same time, it's a bad combination,"
Gov. Lincoln Chafee said.
In Massachusetts,
Gov. Deval Patrick enacted a statewide driving ban for the first time
since the Blizzard of `78. Hours before the ban went into effect at 4
p.m., long lines formed at gas stations, some of which were almost out
of fuel.
James Stone said he was saving the remaining regular gas at his station in Abington, south of Boston, for snowplow drivers.
"It hasn't snowed like this in two years," Stone said. "Most people are caught way off-guard."
In
New York, Fashion Week, a series of designer showings with some
activities held under tents, went on mostly as scheduled, though
organizers put on additional crews to deal with the snow and ice, turned
up the heat and fortified the tents. The snow did require some wardrobe
changes: Designer Michael Kors was forced to arrive at the Project
Runway show in Uggs.
For Joe DeMartino, of
Fairfield, Conn., being overprepared was impossible: His wife was
expecting their first baby Sunday. He stocked up on gas and food, got
firewood ready and was installing a baby seat in the car. The couple
also packed for the hospital.
"They say that things should clear up by Sunday. We're hoping that they're right," he said.
Said his wife, Michelle: "It adds an element of excitement."
The
snow was too much of a good thing in some places. In New Hampshire, the
University of Connecticut's Skiing Carnival was canceled because of the
snowstorm. In Maine, the National Toboggan Championships in Camden were
postponed from Saturday to Sunday, and the Camp Sunshine Polar Plunge
was put off until March.
At Rosie's Liquors in Abington, customers were lined up eight to 10 deep Friday, snapping up rum, wine and 30-packs of beer.
"We've
been absolutely slammed. It's almost been like Christmas here," manager
Kristen Brown said. "A lot of people are saying, `I'm going to be stuck
with my family all weekend. I need something to do.'"
