US set for another ‘snowmageddon’
Print Edition
A MASSIVE blizzard began dumping snow on the southern and eastern United States yesterday, with mass flight cancelations, five states declaring states of emergency, and more than 60 centimeters predicted for Washington alone.
The National Weather Service said the winter storm could rank near the top 10 to ever hit the region. NWS meteorologist Paul Kocin compared it to “Snowmageddon,” the first of two storms that “wiped out” Washington in 2010, but he said the weekend timing could help limit deaths and damage.
“It does have the potential to be an extremely dangerous storm that can affect more than 50 million people,” said Louis Uccellini, director of the weather service. The snowfall, expected to continue into Sunday, could easily cause more than US$1 billion in damage and paralyze the eastern third of the nation, he said.
Uccellini said that all the elements have come together to create a blizzard with brutally high winds, dangerous inland flooding, white-out conditions and even the possibility of thunder snow, when lightning strikes through a snowstorm. Snowfall as heavy as up to 7.6 centimeters an hour could continue for 24 hours or more, Kocin said. Philadelphia is expected to have 45 centimeters of snow with falls of up to 30 centimeters in New York.
A state of emergency was declared in Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia and parts of other states. Blizzard warnings or watches were in effect along the storm’s path, from Arkansas through Tennessee and Kentucky to the mid-Atlantic states and as far north as New York.
Schools and government offices were closed, thousands of flights canceled and millions of people stocked up on supplies. College basketball games and concerts in the region were postponed.
All major airlines have issued waivers for travel over the weekend, allowing passengers to rebook onto earlier or later flights to avoid the storms.
Flight tracking service FlightAware said airlines canceled more than 2,400 flights yesterday to, from or within the US, and another 2,400 were canceled for today.
Washington’s subway system said it will shut down entirely through Sunday. About 1,000 track workers will be deployed to keep New York City’s subway system moving and 79 trains will have “scraper shoes” to reduce the icing on the rails.
The federal government said its offices would be closing early and a White House spokesman said President Barack Obama would hunker down at the White House.
The US Capitol Police said sledding on Capitol Hill, which only recently became legal after an act of Congress, would be welcome for the first time in decades if conditions were safe.
At a Baltimore supermarket, Sharon Brewington stocked her cart, remembering that in 2010 she and her daughter were stuck at home with nothing but noodles and water. “I’m not going to make that mistake again,” she said.
On Thursday, icy conditions caused accidents that killed two drivers in North Carolina and one in Tennessee. A truck with a snowplow killed a pedestrian in Maryland.
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