E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSNBC's Ron Mott reports that cleanup is slowly underway from the Blizzard of 2013 is underway in the Northeast.
Updated at 4:30 p.m. ET: A gusting winter storm buried parts of the Northeast under 3 feet of snow and left millions of people with little to do Sunday but wait — for lights to come on, flights to resume and packed-in cars to be freed.
Transportation systems slowly flickered back. New York airports reopened on limited schedules, and around 11 p.m. Saturday night Boston’s Logan International Airport welcomed in its first flight since the storm hit. All major airports are operational again, but many in the affected area are still experiencing delays and cancellations.
Still, for the most part, the country’s most populous region came to a standstill for a day. Elected officials pleaded with people to stay inside, even after the snow stopped, to let emergency crews and snowplows do their work.
Full coverage from The Weather Channel
“This is going to go on for a number of days,” Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy said. “This will not all be done today.”
Gov. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island warned that while it was no longer snowing, the danger hadn't ended.
"People need to take this storm seriously, even after it's over. If you have any kind of heart condition, be careful with the shoveling," The Associated Press quoted him as saying.
The storm was blamed for at least 10 deaths, including a child poisoned by carbon monoxide and an 81-year-old Connecticut woman who was clearing snow with a blower who was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver.
At 4:00 p.m. ET Sunday, 290,726 homes and businesses were without power in New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, down from a total of about 650,000. Some schools in the region said that they would be closed on Monday, according to the AP.
NBC's Ron Allen joins Lester Holt with the latest from Connecticut, a state that had some of the highest snow totals.
And along the coast, including among people battered by Superstorm Sandy less than four months ago, flooding was a concern. The snowstorm announced itself with hurricane-force winds and churned up offshore waters.
When the snow finally stopped Saturday afternoon, cities and towns reported eye-popping snow totals — 40 inches in Hampden, Conn., 38 inches in Milford, Conn., and 34 inches in New Haven. Portland, Maine, got almost 32 inches, breaking its record.
Boston reported a hair under 25 inches, placing the storm in that city’s five-worst on record. Concord, N.H., reported 2 feet. Central Park in New York — by afternoon a sledder’s paradise — reported 11.4 inches.
The National Weather Service recorded peak wind gusts of 83 mph in Cuttyhunk, Mass., the strength of a Category 1 hurricane. There were gusts of 72 mph in Westport, Conn., and 76 mph in East Boston.
On the Long Island Expressway, which looked more like a moonscape than a busy thoroughfare, 60 to 100 cars were stuck in the snow, and police officers worked through the night to free people from cars and get them to safety.
Richard Ebbrecht, a chiropractor, told the AP that he left his office in Brooklyn at 3 p.m. Friday and got stuck six or seven times on the expressway and other roads.
“We were all helping each other, shoveling, pushing,” he said.
He gave up and settled in for the night just two miles from home. At 8 a.m., he walked the rest of the way.
“I could run my car and keep the heat on and listen to the radio a little bit,” he told the AP. “It was very icy under my car. That’s why my car is still there.”
Among the 10 deaths blamed on the storm was an 11-year-old boy in Boston who was overcome by carbon monoxide while keeping warm in the car.
NBC's Ron Mott joins Lester Holt with an updates on the blizzard's aftermath in Rhode Island.
The boy had been helping his father shovel out the car and got cold. The father started the engine, and the boy got inside, a Boston fire spokesman told the AP. But the car’s exhaust pipe was covered by a snowbank.
In a separate incident, also in Boston, a 20-year-old man was found dead in his car. He was also overcome by carbon monoxide fumes.
In Auburn, N.H., a man was killed after losing control of his car and hitting a tree. He was found dead in his car by local authorities.
In Prospect, Conn., an 81-year-old woman was using a snowblower when a driver struck and killed her and fled the scene, Malloy said. In Danbury, a man slipped on a porch and was found dead Saturday morning, the mayor told NBC Connecticut.
A 53-year-old man in Bridgeport, Conn., was found dead under snow at his house, possibly from hypothermia or a cardiac arrest, authorities said. A 55-year-old New Milford man died after he suffered a heart attack while plowing. A Shelton man, 49, died while digging out his truck.
A man in Livingston County, N.Y., was plowing his driveway with a tractor Friday night when the tractor went off the edge of the road and fell on top of him.
And in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., an 18-year-old woman lost control of her car in the snow and struck Muril M. Hancock, 74, who was walking near the shoulder, police said Friday. Hancock died at the hospital.
On the Long Island Expressway, dozens of cars were stuck in the snow, and police officers worked through the night to free people from cars and get them to safety. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.
In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Saturday morning that 2,200 pieces of equipment were on the streets, salting and plowing. He said that all the primary streets in the city had been plowed.
“I think it’s fair to say that we were very lucky,” he said. “Looks like we dodged a bullet.”
He said the city had offered help to other places hit harder by the storm.
In Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick had ordered all cars off the roads but announced Saturday afternoon that he was lifting the ban for Interstate 91 and the slice of the state to the west.
Connecticut had a similar ban in place, but Malloy could not say when it might be lifted. He said Saturday afternoon that he expected it to remain in place at least for the rest of the day.
Transportation systems slowly flickered back to life Saturday, but for the most part, the country's most populous region came to a standstill for a day. NBC's Rehema Ellis reports.
The winter storm was fueled by two weather systems — a so-called clipper pattern that swept across the Midwest and a band of rain that churned up from the South. They clashed explosively over the Northeast on Friday.
The storm arrived in earnest Friday night. The governors of New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island all 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.
Related:
'Absolutely beautiful' scene in Conn. town hit by most snow
Sandy survivors: It's like a repeat 'nightmare'
Leave a Comment:
Yup. Looks like your typical wintertime snow event. Of course, leave it to the sensationalist media to overhype a routine event to one akin to the END OF THE WORLD!!!!! OMG!!! FEAR!!! TWO PEOPLE DIED IN CAR WRECKS ON SNOWY ROADS!!! STAY INSIDE!!! STAY FEARRFUL...and stay tuned for more after a word from our sponsors....
That is not very much snow 3 or 4 feet. Out west in the Mountain states they often get in excess of 700 inches each winter some places over 1000 inches. It is just that they have the heavy duty equipment to move the snow. In NYC, Mass., Conn. and New Jersey they have mickey mouse snow plows and no where to plow the snow in congested inner cities areas.
Inquire from truckers about how much snow there is out west in the Mountain states. These guys are often loading all day and driving all night on pickup and delivery schedules. To them remarks like Gov. Chris Christie made on national network TV that he only got 2 hours of sleep the night of hurricane Sandy sounds like pansy fruitloop mamas boy stuff. Go back to sleep Gov. Christie.........................
Hurricane Sandy was not the same as this storm-it was not at all routine. I was reading blogs and such, and the people in the Northeast were not at ALL prepared to be hit by a hurricane of any strength. Category 1 force may not sound like much if you have never been through a hurricane-and, of course, people who have been through them love to brag and act like they are nothing but a thunderstorm-but nothing stops a storm surge no matter what category the hurricane is. One problem with Sandy was that people didn't understand that they HAD to evacuate because of the storm surge, that even a designated shelter would not protect them from the flooding the surge would bring-and a lot of people didn't evacuate. Apparently even public officials didn't understand the futility of placing shelters within an evacuation zone where the people who sheltered there would be vulnerable to the surge. Also, there is always a sense of, "It won't really happen to US." But it DID happen to some people.
I don't really care what you think of Christie, but he had people out there trapped and needing rescue during Hurricane Sandy because they had not heeded the warnings to evacuate. Peoples' lives were in serious danger-people who lived in his state. If you ask me, he was doing his job. President Bush was soundly criticized for not doing enough during and after Katrina. What would you have thought of Christie if he had slept peacefully while his constituents were in peril and fighting for their lives? Approx. 37 people were killed by Sandy in New Jersey alone. At one time Sandy was considered the second costliest hurricane ever to hit the US after Katrina. I'd say Hurricane Sandy was quite different from a routine snowstorm in the mountain states.
I live in FL and have been through several hurricanes. There is a reason why they evacuate the places they evacuate. There is a reason for all the things they tell you to do to prepare for a hurricane or a storm. Usually you don't need all the precautions because often the storm is not as bad as it might have been or it even misses you altogether, but the forcasters have to give the worst case scenario so that everyone will prepare for it so that there will be minimum loss of life. Sometimes it IS the worst case scenario, and then you find out why they told you to do all those things, why you had to evacuate-and you thank God that you did what they said, or you wish like anything you had. I've seen what happened in a few "worst case scenarios" in FL, and it wasn't pretty. Katrina was probably worse than the worst case scenario.
Yea, where is Obama? Playing golf or just out riding around in Air Force One? I sincerely wish all the people of New England, New York and New Jersey the very best of luck, because you are on your own. But then you voted for the idiot and chief/dictator and chief. Where are the F.E.M.A. trailers for the people displaced by Sandy? Why are there people still living in Hotels and tents without power in NY and NJ? Where is all of the aid they were supposed to get? If you listen to the main stream media all is good and Obama is the savior he fixed it all. I think not. The teflon idiot and chief/ dictator and chief is immune to any truth. George W. Bush was slammed in the media for not having Rescue teams, aid, housing and have the whole mess cleaned up before Katrina had even left the area. Hell, he was blamed for causing Katrina and was bashed for months after and is still being blamed for the whole thing, Yet we hear nothing of Obama's not doing anything but giving a campaign speech in a neighborhood. Best of luck, you got what you voted for. Call Big Al Gore up and see if he can send you some global warming.
Cap'n, Thanks for the good wishes and the laughs. I've noticed that only conservatives refer to the president as "savior." Maybe some buried man love here? That probably accounts for the obsession with everything he does or doesn't do. And it's "dictator in chief" . . .
"On Friday, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick had ordered non-essentially vehicles off the roads...." NBC news, do you have any copy editors working? Does anybody proof read this stuff before you post it? How about "non-essential", not "non-essentially".
I just commented about the numerous spelling/grammar errors. Drives me bananas!!!
I can't believe the northeast just didn't freeze over, break off and float away into the atlantic...haha
New England baby boom in 9 months:)
DAMMIT!
More welfare leaches that will be sucking off the government tit!
That's ALL we need.
Truly, Texas must be full of morons. If you bothered to check (God forbid) you would learn that a higher percentage of us in Massachusetts pay taxes than in almost any other state (including Texas). Please learn more. But with your education system . . . probably not so much.
Sounds like global cooling. Bring in Al Gore and Hollywood to save us.
I wish they would hand out thousand dollar fines to the thousands of idiots who drive in a snow emergency and get stuck. Stay the FK home. Unless you are sick, work in a healthcare, fire department, police or shoveling the snow. Stay out of the way, should have had your tp and milk supply losers
IS Obama there, shoveling snow?
These people better thank GOD that they have Obama there to help, just ask the Hurricane Sandy folks.
Yea me Farleft, man made my foot. You all sold this country a line with the second hand smoke is going to kill you bs. Of course you had no evidence to support such statement, true progressive liberalism, in fact all the data suggest that second hand smoke. Though a nuisances I agree it is quite harmless. Grew up in the 50-60 when everyone smoked, mom, dad, our doctor, at school, at work on planes you name it people smoked. So if second hand smoke was so deadly, how come the boomer generation is still alive? All airplane pilot and stewardesses should be dead, can you imagine a plane full of smokers for 6-10 hours? My God the carnage! But since you have the vile and corrupt teachers union 'teaching" this nonsense about global warming, you can convince I am sure another generation to believe anything, right?
You liberals in these states....what are you doing for the poor?? the people that don't have generators....foood....water...a place to stay....a computer to make a comment....you and the liberal media bought their vote under the promise your for the poor people...what are you doing for them?? a Obama phone shoved up their butt won't keep them warm.
Maybe if they set their ringers to 'vibrate?'
We actually convert a ton of public and private buildings into shelters to house the homeless, those without power or heating, and other people who got REALLY hit by this blizzard
Massachusetts resident for 6 years
What is wrong with North-Easterners ?? When a winter storm comes why don't they have the common sense to get prepared and stay home instead of running the roads and creating a disaster? Disgusting..
Some posters here seem to be making jokes about a number of things in concern to the blizzard. Go ahead, all you're doing is showing ignorance. The politics is laughable. Those anti-Obama folks will clunk around anything to make their anti-Obama stuff up.
Now, as to why many were up and about during the storm. Some actually are that stupid, but then again, there are those who work in situations where you cannot simply decide to stay home because the employer will shut down. Like with police, fire, emergency responders, medical personal for hospitals, etc. Ever give a thought about that...No! Snow falls of from 1 to 3 feet are hitting the NE along with very high winds and possible coastal flooding. Not exactly ideal conditions for getting through the day. And oh how "biased", how horrible it is for the weather forecasters and news folks for showing all of it on air. But then again, these same whiners then turn around and blame their fellow citizens for not listening to these horrible news stations about the warnings. As I said, they simply exhibit their own ignorance.
Not any worse than what the anti-Bush folks did and still do daily.
So then your excuse is because others do it , that makes it ok? And that puts the anti-Obama folks on higher ground? Sorry, as much as I do make criticisms of President Bush, on "policy issues", I do not put up any critiques on a "personal nature" of him. The anti-Obama/anti-liberal insults show the hypocrisy of they who dare to claim to be better as being actually worse.
Nope, sorry but I did not say it is ok if others do it. I just said not any worse than what anti-Bush folks do. I just find it difficult to understand someone who finds fault with other people for the same thing their side does daily. Me, I get a lot of anti-Obama jokes/insults which I never pass on because those things are entirely out of place. And when I am critical of President Obama, I never call him names nor try to impart anything that would insult him. And especially I never try to insult the Office of the President just because I may or may not disagree with his policies. I must admit in the beginning I did do those things but quickly realized that it was not right so I stopped and try hard to not let those things slip into my postings.
Have a nice day.
Convenient...you didn't "say it", but your words certainly did imply it. However, in the rest of your note, we're on equal ground. But for me, I will call out those who do nothing but "insult", as is clearly happening here with some people. And that will go for anyone on either side of the matter.
Hey,it's Winter. One of Mother Natures finest moments.
#!i=2357232011&k=Bjqn8g2 Storm Photos in CT
#!i=2357232011&k=Bjqn8g2
Well,I'm in the sun,no snow here,,,lmao
This definitely proves global warming!
WOW--MSN needs a better editing team. I have been reading several stories on the home page and finding numerous grammatical errors.
That being said, I hope that the NE pulls through this--stay warm and safe!!
You want proper grammar,go back to school,,,who cares?
Apparently some do Bullet......they are even often critical what someone posts on the vine. Those people do it to try and express their supposedly superiority in their responses to someone's post they disagree with. It is very childish. And what is funny is that often while correcting someone they make grammar mistakes themselves.
And I haven't seen snow in about 12 years....does not bother this old man nor my wife very much at all.
I am in a northwest suburb along rte 128 just outside Boston. We don't have three feet. LOL Maybe in a drift but otherwise this is not a Blizzard of 78 type of storm. Its a very light fluffy snow. Not the wet heavy backbreaking snow. This is just a good nor'easter like we get from time to time in New England. Its not a Monster. Just a storm.
I just wanted to bring some of the media hype down a notch. They are trying so hard to hype this. LOL They are broadcasting from the shore where there is storm surge. I grew up on the shore and we knew that storms bring a surge and that was a risk we lived with in exchange for being there. For the rest of us this is just a nor'easter. 18 inches or 24 inches matters little especially with light fluffy precip.
If you are reading this you should know New Englanders will wait for the storm to move off to the north, then we'll go out and clear our driveways and walkways, and then we'll go on with our lives. Most of us enjoy a good storm. The consequence we hate most is if we lose power and depend on utilities to restore it. Nowadays with front drive and all wheel drive vehicles, travel is easy. No need to go out and hitch up the snow chains to the rear wheels. No carbs that freeze up. Its just a winter wonderland for us.
T101V2
Is that all that happens??? The electricity goes out in freezing temps? Everything runs on electricity, especially the homes heating system.
Easterners just love to play down the unpredictable weather that ruins outings, severely limits their abilities to enjoy outdoor activities year round, causes severe damage to autos and homes, and basically runs their lives. In SO Cal today, it will be sunny and 60 degrees.
Some areas were not hit as hard as others, like your house
Massachusetts resident for 6 years
We haven't had a "blaster" like the one that just clobbered the east coast here in Wi in a long time. We do however get nailed with 10 to 15 inches from time to time and with the improved forecasting services we don't take warnings lightly. When the D.O.T advices people to stay off the roads, except for emergencies, we do. It would be better to miss a day of work than to be in a wreck and be crippled for life and not be able to work at all. Even if someone needs to go into work, slow down, take your time, it will all be there when you get there, no boss is going to punish an employee for showing up late when there are unsafe driving conditions and if they do, so what. Being prepared for bad weather doesn't take a whole lot of time if you heed the warnings ahead of time. Go to the store a few days ahead of time, fill up the cars with gas, get snow blower gas and anything else you need when the warnings first come out. These simple steps make life during a bad storm a little easier.
And they (easterners) wonder why people love living in So. California.
Today it will be in the 60's and sunny.
I agree Robert.............there certainly are some reasons not to live in California but weather is not one of them. We enjoy California and will till the end of our days.
Any place on the West Coast people love living there. I have been to several different parts of the USA, and I don't think you will find better weather anywhere like you do here.
In SW WA, we have all four seasons, most of the snow is in the higher elevations, and right now it's overcast and chilly. Depending on exactly where you live on the West Coast, the weather from So.California to the Canadian Border is vastly different. But it's still enjoyable year around.
But those people were warned about the storm days before it hit them. Didn't prepare, well blame yourself for your misfortune.
I couldn't wait to get out of California and return to New England, but I do love Oregon. To each his own.
The Fox Ditto Heads sure are dumb...
I just don't get it....what does your post have to do with this article?
BTW, how is the weather in your neck of the woods?
Hey Bill CT
Can you name any lies or untruths you see on FOX ???
I didn't say they lie.I said the Fox Ditto Heads and its followers are dumb..Grasshopper
Didn't they make a movie about a typical Fox Ditto Head and an 0 bamma voter?
Yeah, I think they did.
It was called Dumb and DUMBER!
I was wondering how the media was going to save itself after a non event. They made it a disaster! Makes me think Sandy, Katrina and all the other damaging storms can only be attributed to human stupidity and the media.
if "human stupidity " calls looking for a poster child, make sure your phone line is open......... ;-)~
Your pistol is pointed the right way.