The northeastern United States was hit by a severe winter storm on Saturday that threatened to drop more than 60 cm of snow while carrying strong winds, prompting the governors of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and other states to declare a state of emergency. . The Nor’easter, which moved up the East Coast after forming in the Atlantic Ocean off the Carolinas, blanketed a large swath of New England in heavy snowfall, with some coastal areas of New Jersey already recording 15 inches (38 cm) of accumulation.
“The combination of heavy snowfall and strong winds will produce dangerous blizzard conditions along parts of the mid-Atlantic and New England coasts,” the National Weather Service said in an advisory on Saturday. Governors who declared states of emergency warned of likely power outages. The storm led airlines to cancel nearly 6,000 flights over the weekend.
“This storm seems to be a record-breaking storm,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said in an interview with CBS TV on Saturday. “We not only expect a lot of snow, but it will fall very quickly during the most intense hours.” Wu said Boston, which is expected to receive more than 2 feet of snow, had more than 900 plows and salt spreaders clearing the roads Saturday morning.
The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for the Boston metro area and its nearly 4.9 million residents, predicting “whiteout conditions” and damaging winds. Forecasters said more than two feet of snow could fall in some areas with wind gusts of 70 miles (113 km) per hour. Southeast Massachusetts, including Cape Cod and the island of Martha’s Vineyard, was expected to receive the highest snow totals.
The National Weather Service issued flood warnings for coastal areas, and Amtrak canceled passenger rail service in much of the region. The storm struck nearly 44 years to the day after a monstrous blizzard crippled New England in 1978. Dumping more than 27 inches (70 cm) of snow on Boston, this storm killed dozens of people, in trapped others in their homes and closed major highways. for a week.
In Long Island, New York, weather conditions may have contributed to the death of an elderly woman who was found early Saturday morning in her car in a hotel parking lot, according to a spokesperson for the New York City Police Department. Nassau County. The woman appears to have suffered a medical episode, but cold air entering the car may also have been a factor in her death, the spokesperson said.
(This story has not been edited by the Devdiscourse team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
