A major blizzard slammed the northeastern states late on Friday into early Saturday morning, dropping a widespread one to three feet of snow across New England and parts of Long Island, New York, with Hamden, Connecticut coming in with an incredible 40 inches of snow. At its height on late Friday night, the storm dumped snow on the state at a rate of 4 to 5 inches an hour.
The well anticipated and forecast storm began to hit the northeast during the afternoon on Friday, with schools, airports, and businesses shut down from New York City to Boston. By late Saturday morning, the major storm finally moved out to sea leaving millions digging out. Workers across New York and New England struggled to get airports, trains and highways back online on Saturday.
The snowstorm, a product of two converging weather systems, is being blamed for at least nine deaths in three states and Canada. More than 5,000 flights were canceled, and 635,000 customers were without power during the height of the storm. That number had fallen to 554,000 by Saturday night.
Winds gusts also reached hurricane force in portions of New England and coastal flooding was reported along the coast. Mandatory evacuations were issued earlier Saturday for Massachusetts coastal regions near the town of Hull ahead of the astronomical high tide.
Hundreds of cars ended up stranded on the Long Island Expressway in New York after motorists got stuck driving in the snow and portions of the highway were still closed on Saturday night.
Click on the “Subscribe” button above and enter your e-mail address to receive a free alert to your inbox when a new article is published. Please become our fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
Any weather-related decisions should always be made after consulting proper statements and forecasts from the National Weather Service.
Interested in writing for Examiner.com? Visit this link to apply today!
Comments