A severe winter storm overwhelmed New England with heavy snow and hurricane-force wind gusts, but light fluffy snow and a weekend that kept people off the roads meant that damage didn’t appear extensive for a storm of such magnitude.
There were scenes of cross-country skiing through Time Square in New York City and canoeing through Nantucket town in Massachusetts.
There also were blizzard-like conditions seen across the region. The worst of the storm centered along the coastlines of Long Island, Maine and Massachusetts, where more than 100,000 people were without power Saturday. But the winter weather was expected to begin letting up by evening. “The storm will end from southwest to northeast, dissipating over Long Island first,” said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service. “By tomorrow, it’s completely done.”
Throughout the day, snow fell at a rate of 1 to 3 inches an hour along much of the East Coast, according to the National Weather Service, with accumulations of 21 inches seen near the Jersey shore and 24 inches near Boston. A gust of 82 miles an hour was registered on Cape Cod.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker urged residents to continue to stay off roads on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. “We expect it will take until at least mid-morning tomorrow for roads to be in a better condition,” he said. “There still is pretty limited visibility out there.” Massachusetts was the only state to report significant power outages Saturday.
High winds are expected to continue through the night, which affect response time for power outages, Mr. Baker said. It’s expected that most downed lines won’t be fixed until Sunday.
On Nantucket Island off Cape Cod, the historic downtown had heavy flooding, with water flowing through the main streets around homes and shops. Some high-school students were seen paddling a canoe through the frigid water around town.
The storm’s atmospheric pressure dropped so much that the storm qualifies as a “bomb cyclone,” a more-intense storm category that can bring hurricane-strength winds.
The snow dropped by the storm is generally light and fluffy, meaning that it blows easily in high wind and reduces visibility, creating problems for motorists. On Cape Cod, the temperature is a little warmer, so the snow is heavier there, Mr. Chenard said.
Video: Play and work as snowstorm hits New England (Associated Press)
Lighter snow could mean fewer power outages for a storm of this magnitude. “Lighter snow means less impact on trees; less impact on trees means less impact on utilities,” said Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, who called the storm a “wicked New England” one.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a briefing Saturday in New York City that the impact of the nor’easter lingered longer than some meteorologists had forecast. Communities on Long Island were expected to have the state’s heaviest impact, with up to 1-and-1/2 feet of snow and high winds, while parts of New York City could expect around a foot of snow, she said.
In Provincetown, Mass., on the Cape, Bob Merckel, a teacher, woke up at around 7 a.m. Saturday to discover the power was already out, which meant no heat in his condominium where he lives with his partner, Larry Black. “It’s blowing very hard,” Mr. Merckel said of the snow. “And it’s not pretty at all.”
“We have lots of books,” said Mr. Merckel, on the phone, who was also sharing photos on Twitter. “We’ll take lots of naps, and we have plenty of wine for tonight. The windows are iced over. I’m pretty sure by the end of day it will be like living in an igloo.”
Shaun Cristler, a United Parcel Service Inc. pilot returning from a work trip Friday evening, had planned to take the ferry from Cape Cod to his home on Nantucket. Instead, he checked into a hotel that now has no heat and only limited electricity, after boat service was suspended. “He’s just pretty much stuck,” said his wife, Lucie Cristler, who spent Saturday snowed in and away from Mr. Cristler at their midisland Nantucket home.
Reached by phone late Saturday morning, Mr. Cristler had just returned to his room at the Best Western after a successful beer and snack run. His heatless room, he said, wasn’t really so cold. “We’re not burning the furniture yet,” he said. “Other than not having my wife and family here, you know, it’s not bad.”
New York City deployed more than 1,800 snowplows Saturday, the New York City Department of Sanitation said. Nearly 9% of the department’s employees were out sick, down from 22% at the peak of the Omicron surge a few weeks ago. Roughly 2,100 sanitation workers worked Friday night’s 12-hour shift.
Delivery workers rode bikes over icy city roads. Gustavo Ajche, who delivers food for on-demand apps like DoorDash and Seamless, left his home in Bensonhurst, in Brooklyn, at 6:00 a.m., towing his electric bike on the subway and into downtown Manhattan. He worked for nearly six hours while roughly a half-foot of snow fell. At one point he was doused head to toe by a discharging snowblower. The first thing he did when he got home? “Put my face into a blanket,” Mr. Ajche said.
In Central Park, Ezra Escamilla pushed his two sons on an inflatable sled shaped like a Tyrannosaurus Rex. “It’s awesome, and the fact that it’s a weekend is amazing,” Mr. Escamilla said.
People across the region stayed home, shoveled and cooked. Jaspaul Singh, in Monroe, N.J., shoveled out his home driveway with his two girls Saturday. He was rewarded with puri-aloo, a traditional Indian dish of potato curry, eaten with fried bread. “It was the perfect comfort food after a hard, cold day’s work,” Mr. Singh said.
There were no Saturday flights at Logan Airport in Boston. On Saturday, 2,848 flights were canceled and 897 Sunday flights were canceled at the three major New York City area airports, Logan and Chicago O’Hare and Midway, according to FlightAware.
Amtrak on Saturday suspended travel on many key routes along the eastern seaboard, including all Acela line trains and Northeast regional travel between Boston and New York.
In Boston, the National Weather Service said travel would be near impossible Saturday.
Temperatures in the Northeast are expected to be low after the nor’easter’s snowfall abates, and wind chills are expected to drop to between 0 degrees and negative-10 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday evening, according to the National Weather Service. Thick sheets of ice are likely to remain across the region’s highways and roads well into next week, with temperatures unlikely to rise above freezing until Wednesday or Thursday.
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