DisastersNortheast U.S. digs out after deadly snowstorm

Published 11 February 2013

About 250,000 homes and businesses in northeast United States remain remained without power this morning as a blizzard dumped more than three feet of snow on north-mid-Atlantic and New England states, and parts of Canada. The death toll was at fifteen. Utilities in New England said the storm could leave some customers in the dark at least until Tuesday. About 650,000 lost power in eight states at the height of the storm.

An all-too-common scene throughout the U.S. northeast // Source: uromnews.ir

About 250,000 homes and businesses in northeast United States remain remained without power this morning as a blizzard dumped more than three feet of snow on north-mid-Atlantic and New England states, and parts of Canada. The death toll was at fifteen.

The New York Times reports that some motorists had to be rescued after spending hours stuck – at time, buried — in heavy snow. Utilities in New England said the storm could leave some customers in the dark at least until Tuesday. About 650,000 lost power in eight states at the height of the storm.

We’ve never seen anything like this,” said county official Steven Bellone of New York’s Long Island, where hundreds of drivers had been caught on highways by Friday’s fast-moving storm. Local police said Sunday that all known abandoned cars were searched and no one needing medical help was found.

Fox News reports that at least eleven deaths in the United States and four in Canada were blamed on the snowstorm, including an 11-year-old boy in Boston who was overcome by carbon monoxide as he sat in a running car to keep warm while his father shoveled Saturday morning.

The storm, which, in some res, was blowing with hurricane-force winds, hit hard along the heavily populated corridor between New York City and Maine.

Most outages were in Massachusetts, where some 180,000 customers remain without power this morning.

New York City’s three major airports — LaGuardia, Kennedy, and Newark, New Jersey — were up and running by late Saturday morning after shutting down the evening before. Boston’s Logan Airport resumed operations late Saturday night.

Boston recorded 24.9 inches of snow, making it the fifth-largest storm in the city since records were kept. The city issued a call for state and private contractors for more front-end loaders and other heavy equipment to clear snow piles which were clogging residential streets.

East of New York city, on eastern Long Island, which was hit with as much as thirty inches of snow, hundreds of snowplows and other heavy equipment were sent in Sunday to clear ice- and drift-covered highways where hundreds of people and cars were abandoned during the height of the storm.

Fox News notes that hundreds of cars were stuck on roads, including the Long Island Expressway, a 27-mile stretch of which was closed Sunday for snow-removal work. Officials were hoping to have most major highways cleared in time for the morning commute Monday.

The National Weather Service was forecasting rain and warmer temperatures in the region on Monday — which could begin melting some of the snow but also add weight to snow already piled on roofs, raising the possibility of roof collapse.