E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSUpdated at 4:20 a.m. ET: A powerful winter storm pounded the Northeast Saturday, with gusting winds and heavy snow causing power failures for hundreds of thousands of people, dozens of accidents and fuel shortages at gas stations.
At least one death was confirmed, a snow-related car accident in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
By 4:20 a.m. ET Saturday, 26 inches of snow had fallen at Hamden, Conn., with 22.4 inches at Upton, N.Y., and 15.3 in Portland, Maine, weather.com reported. New York City's Central park had 6.3 inches.
Blizzard warnings were issued for the New York City metro area, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, coastal New Hampshire and coastal Maine, weather.com added.
Forecasters said they expected Massachusetts to get the most snowfall, with an accumulation of up to 3 feet in some spots. The worst snowfall on record in Boston was a 27.5-inch blast a decade ago.
Coastal residents were warned that the winds could top 70 mph. Those living on north- and east-facing shorelines from Boston south to Cape Cod Bay were told to prepare for tides 2 to 4 feet above normal.
"Coastal flooding is expected on the Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts coastlines," the National Weather Service said.
"I'm really nervous," Kathy Niznansky, a 65-year-old teacher in coastal Fairfield, Conn. told The Associated Press. Niznansky is still recovering from flooding from Superstorm Sandy which arrived on her birthday and knocked her out of her house near the beach for two months. "Now I'm really worried about this tide tonight. I just don't want any more flooding."
In Massachusetts, gusts over 50 mph were reported in Boston and over 60 mph on Nantucket Island. Winds up to 75 mph were possible in Provincetown, forecasters said.
Police said hundreds of cars were stuck on the Long Island Expressway, NBC weatherman Al Roker said in a message on Twitter.
The winter storm gathered strength as two weather systems — a so-called clipper pattern sweeping across the Midwest and a band of rain from the South — converged over the Northeast early Friday.
By late Friday, the storm had arrived in earnest and was expected to pummel New England through Saturday and last as long as Sunday farther north.
Governors of New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island declared states of emergency.
More than 800 National Guard soldiers and airmen were activated in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York to provide roadway support, emergency transportation and back-up for first responders, the Department of Defense said Friday evening, while governors in the region warned people to get home and be prepared for power outages.
Airlines canceled more than 3,000 flights on Friday, Boston closed its subway, Amtrak suspended some service, and cities across the Northeast prepared to deploy an armada of snowplows and salt-spreading trucks.
More than half a million people were without power, including a whopping 389,000 customers in Massachusetts, 177,000 in Rhode Island and 35,000 in Connecticut, and more power failures were expected overnight.
For people in the blizzard’s path, forecasters and authorities had a clear message: Stay home.
Driving bans
Governors in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts announced restrictions on driving.
In the most sweeping ban, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick ordered all non-essential vehicles off the roads by 4 p.m. and said people should brace to be snowed in for two days. He said the storm was "profoundly different" from others the state has endured in recent years.
Gov. Dannel Malloy of Connecticut banned car traffic on limited-access highways starting at 4 p.m. State police reported nearly 100 minor accidents across the state by Friday afternoon.
"If you don't currently have a reason to be on the road, if you're not an emergency personnel that's required to report to work somewhere, stay home," Malloy said at a state armory news conference. "This is it. Things are starting to accumulate."
In the Poughkeepsie, N.Y. crash, a car driven by an 18-year-old female went out of control in the snow and struck Muril M. Hancock, 74, who was walking near the shoulder, police said. Hancock died from his injuries at the hospital.
The eastern part of Connecticut was experiencing white-out conditions late into the evening, the state's emergency operations center reported, and even snowplows were immobilized because of the weather.
Several motorists were reported stranded on snowed-in highways and interstates, but no injuries had been reported. Still, emergency crews were unable to respond due to the severe conditions.
A 19-car pileup on Interstate 295 in Falmouth, Maine, was blamed on the storm. Police said there were minor injuries.
Elsewhere, Rhode Island police asked people for loaner snowmobiles, and out-of-state utility crews headed for Connecticut to help.
Full coverage from The Weather Channel
Watch live video of the Northeast blizzard
Sandy survivors: It's like a repeat 'nightmare'
Airline cancellations piled up all morning. Almost 3,000 flights were scrapped for Friday and more than 1,000 more for Saturday, according to FlightAware.com.
At the major airports in New York and New England, most major airlines said they would shut down completely Friday afternoon.
Schools were closed in Boston and for most of New England on Friday. Patrick ordered non-essential state workers to stay home Friday and encouraged private employers to do the same.
In New York, the transit agency added more than 20 afternoon trains on its Metro-North commuter line from Grand Central Terminal to get people out of the city before the worst hit.
The Metro-North suspended service Friday night due to the storm. The Long Island Rail Road shut down service east of Speonk about 9 p.m.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned people to stay in and to use public transportation if they had to go out, although even that carried the possibility of disruptions. The city had 250,000 tons of salt at the ready for the roads.
He encouraged New Yorkers to stay in and cook a meal or read a good book.
"This is a very serious storm, and we should treat it that way," said Tom Prendergast, president of the agency that runs New York subways and buses.
The weather service warned that the combination of heavy snow and high winds would limit visibility and cause whiteout conditions at times.
"Those venturing outdoors may become lost or disoriented," the weather service said in an advisory issued for the Boston area.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Related:
The Weather Channel live stream
State-by-state impact of the storm
Show us your storm photos by adding #NBCNewsPics to your tweet or Instagram post, or upload your pictures directly by clicking the box below.
Leave a Comment:
Ok everyone has known about this super storm comming for almost a week now. Can't wait to see all the dumb asses that don't take heed. You already see people out wandering around and driving still that were told to STAY IN DO NOT DRIVE. Sad but there will be a death toll.
This just in obama is already blaming President Bush for Nemo The Killer Blizzard.
Cool, did he put that in writing?
It's on Youtube JJ, look for it.
He hacked Bushes email and planted it LOL ...
This is when the liberals on the east coast stop moaning about their 'global warming' talking points and anti-capitalist theories. If you're taking your lead from Al Gore...you're simply lost and a fool. Ever wonder why you can find seashells in Colorado? It's called global historic change.....get educated!
R U Serious! What! NBC has nothing better to write about? What is it with the east coast? Everytime theres a storm it makes the headlines> If that's the case we (Alaska) should be in the headlines on a daily basis! Quit your whinning and get on with your winter. Just recently 40 below here, but you don't hear us whinning abouty it.
Someone needs to tell Brian Williams or his writers that Revere Beach MA is NOT on Cape Cod!
Oh just stop it. Because NY gets hit by a winter storm it's GD National News and 24 coverage. Ohio gets hit by a Winter Storm do we get the same National News Top Story 24 hours a day AP news cycle? Give me a break.
Somebody breaks wind sideways in NY it's a National Story. THIS IS NOT NATIONAL NEWS.
Tune into weather channel if you want more GD info...the nation is not part of this story nor do we care.
Then turn the channel if you don't want to watch...DOH!
REALLY? You should come to Utah to see a storm. We get these every single winter. Are the schools closed? Nope Is work closed? Nope Wow, this is just too funny!
There's a youtube video of people in Utah ignoring advice coming down a hill, and about 30 vehicles crash landed. Pretty entertaining. One even slid into a snowplow and lost its left headlight. Cool stuff.
Snow in the northeast in the middle of winter. What an unusual story!!
We live outside of Boston , get tons of snow every winter , Survived the greatest blizzard of 78 , and our Nitwit Governor Patrick who is practicing liberal Socialism decided to shut down the roads. . So everyone had to be home by 4:00 Or somewhere where they could not travel and stay put so the plows can get out , before the storm mind you . God we are turning into wimps .. This world is really getting too crazy as People cannot even go out in the Snow anymore ..
Glad there is nothing more important for the media to report on .... like obstructionist Republicans stopping any progress on anything in Congress. Oh, that's right, the media is "liberal" and always is biased towards Dems. yea, right.
"Survived", may be, but apparently you don't remember it. I do. In 78, evening rush hour traffic on 128 on the first day of the storm was so backed up that hundreds of cars were snowed in on the highway for days. It was a huge mess, and many of them died. Clearing the roads by 4pm was a good idea, despite what you and your political bias might assert.
www.blizzardof78.org
if u suffer from insomnia check out the Times Square live cam...
If "u" suffer from "texting" syndrome, go back to Grammar school.
Geez, is it the 24/7 news or is everything just blown out of porportions these days?
Breaking News!!!!!!!!!
It's winter and it is snowing in the Northeast. Now back to you Brian.
This storm is no match for Obama.
Oh Baraka Hussein Obama, stretch forth thine hand now, we pray, make this storm go away;
Use thine instrument, the Governor of Jer-sey
To show thy mercy
And hurry too.
Wow, a real winter storm!!! If you live in the northeast, this is what it is supposed to do in the winters. Years ago, these are the kinds of snow storms we had all the time. Now if it snows more than 6 inches, everyone panics!!! If you don't like the snow, I guess it's time to move.
There was soo much snow recorded falling in times square that the hookers were in mucklucs and the pick-pockets had their hands in their own pockets!
Oh, poor babies. Snow on a weekend. Ahhhhh, I feel so sorry for you --- NOT.
It seems like we're getting storms of the Century, every few weeks or months. Judgement has come to America, for turning away from God.
That is the dumbest post of the day, vx.
324.1 is right up there with 332.
That should say 325.1
@Karl. Lol
Ok, I admit to being a native Floridian, but is this the first winter it has snowed in the north??????
I have seen snow twice in my 64 yrs., both times in my opinion it is cold, wet, and ugly and have no idea why anybody thinks different unless their brains were frozen at a very early age ( I ain't going there ) and why this is major, big time news astounds me.
This " snow event is going to kill 30 or 40 people " okay, 30 or 40 idiots are out of the gene pool and the problem with that is?????
I am still 64 and lived thru every hurricane since 1948, so what am I doing wrong that the folks who live here that didn't make it, do different??, oh yea, listen to my parents, ( who didn't listen to the " experts " ) and CMA.
Expect more bail money for the northern states shortly ( political not withstanding )
I live in New England but spent many years living in Florida, on both coasts. I'll take the weather here over being incinerated while putting up with the proliferation of bat@!$%# lunatics down there anytime.
Thank heavens the news folks are out there warning us about storms in the winter, otherwise how would people know what to expect in the northeast in February. For all of you folks living in the northeast just a heads up. What you're about to see is white stuff coming from the sky, it's called snow, and the temperatures will drop below 32, that's called freezing. It's obvious that in the past 200+ years that this country has been inhabited nothing like this has ever been seen. So, be careful out there.
By the way, it might get hot in the middle of summer, so be prepared...
Yep they should go home. No need to report wind speeds, road conditions, power outages. That's what windows are for.
If you have no power then the power outage reports won't help, but then again you would already know...
Big new because it is in northeast....home of the media.....if this happened in the midsouth or central plains it would hardly be considered news.
The Weather Channel is based in Atlanta.
OK...as is CNN.....what about the rest of the major media? Austin? or Nashville?
Bull,Ditto Head..Try living without electric/heat in 10 degree and 50 mile and hr winds.
Been there, done that in Michigan.....it's called a winter storm warning. Michigan just got dumped on from this same storm a couple of days ago....didn't make national news then. We have many people out of electricity and as I write this, current temp is 8 degrees.
Tuesday, January 29 we had temperatures in the low 60s - by the end of the week we had snow, winds and below zero temperatures with the wind chill factor - it's winter - what can you expect? This week we've had steady rain with low 30s - should be better by the middle of next week. Can't wait for spring. We lucked out last week and didn't get the four or more inches predicted - I hope the east coast doesn't get hit too hard.
LOL, love it. Where are all the Global Warming morons now? Oh yeah they are quiet until the weather suits their ridiculous cause.
Ignorant comment. Global warming is evidenced by trends...no individual weather events.
11madness, your young holier than thou comment is too!
www.skepticalscience.com
My age would surprise you my friend.
11, probably not.
Tim, even GW Bush accept Global Warming as fact.....that argument is pretty much over.
@thom-661865
Global warming? It was changed to "climate change" a while ago. reason? Because morons, like you, don't understand that "global warming" actually results in more serious storms throughout the year....yeah, more snow in winter and stronger, more violent storms the rest of the year. Morons, like you, seem to grasp the word warming and think you can expect a tropical climate in February, and then you comment on how stupid scientists are for ever saying, "global warming". The scientists are not the not the stupid ones here.
A GED grad I see. A Rush Limpaw listener. Today Rush didn't know the difference between CO2 and CO. One and the same to him. Rush's last science and only science class was in the 7th grade,
Your comment, which was very clearly science based, made no point at all. GED grad, yes, you are.
If you wanna talk science, talk science. otherwise, @!$%# off
These storms are normal. I guess this is just a new way to Sensationalize the news. Normasl flu season, but Sensationalized by NBC news.
It's getting to be where most all of your stories are Blanks. Just normal stuff, hyped up.
Sounds like NYC isn't getting a big snow like predicted, more rain. How is it there, New Yorkers?
The heaviest should hit after 8:00 PM EST.