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 Boston was hard hit by the first major winter storm of 2014,
getting nearly 18 inches of snow, while some towns north of New
England's largest city saw close to 2 feet of accumulation.
Major cities from Washington, D.C., to Portland, Maine, were
slammed, with New York's Manhattan Island getting 6 inches of snow
and parts of Queens seeing more than 10 inches of fresh powder.
While plows made easy work of the powdery snow to clear roads and
runways, authorities warned residents to expect unusually cold
weather across the Midwest and Northeast.
Embarrass, Minnesota, notched a reading of minus 36 Fahrenheit
(minus 38 Celsius) that stood as the lowest temperature recorded in
the United States outside Alaska on Friday, according to the
National Weather Service.
"Temperatures tonight and tomorrow are expected to be extremely low,
and dangerously so," Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick said.
"These are dangerous conditions."
The forecast overnight low for Boston was minus 4F (minus 20C) while
New York looked for a low of 3F (minus 16C).
New York City's Department of Homeless Services went to "code blue,"
doubling the number of vans patrolling streets to seek people who
needed shelter and streamlining the check-in process for homeless
shelters.
SEVERAL DEATHS REPORTED
Washington received more than 2 inches of snow, Philadelphia roughly
5 inches and Hartford 7 inches. (U.S. snowfall:
http://link.reuters.com/zym75v)
In Cambridge, Massachusetts, just outside Boston, Tom Klein took a
break from shoveling and said that a life in New England had
accustomed him to harsh winter weather.
"I love a good snowstorm," the 60-year-old co-owner of a small
manufacturing company said. "I don't mind shoveling. I've never
minded shoveling."
Some 3,467 flights were canceled on Friday across the United States
and 12,394 were delayed with Philadelphia and Newark airports
hardest hit, according to FlightAware.com.
Airports across the region warned travelers to expect residual
delays as they cleared a backlog of flights.
"We now have all our airfields — runways and taxiways — clear," said
Ed Freni, aviation director for Boston's Logan International
Airport. "We will be back to normal operations by tomorrow."
The weather was a factor in several deaths.
Police recovered the body of a 71-year-old woman suffering from
Alzheimer's disease who had wandered out in the rural western New
York State town of Byron on Thursday night, improperly dressed for
the single-digit temperatures, according to the Genesee County
Sheriff's Office.
A Philadelphia city worker was killed after a machine he was using
was crushed by a mound of rock salt, media said.
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DE BLASIO DIGS OUT
New York's new mayor, Bill de Blasio, started his day shoveling the
walk in front of his Brooklyn brownstone — a task his wife had said
their 16-year-old son Dante would handle. Dante turned up later, not
being an early riser, his father said at a briefing.
Asked what grade he would give his teenaged son, de Blasio said: "I
give Dante an A for effort and a D for punctuality."
In Washington, the Office of Personnel Management told hundreds of
thousands of federal workers they could work from home or take a
leave because of the storm. The United Nations in New York and
federal courts in New York, New Jersey, and Boston shut down.
Schools closed across much of the region.
A Wayne, New Jersey, man was rescued Friday afternoon after falling
through the ice at Ramapo Lake, where he was snowshoeing in an area
frequented by hikers and mountain bikers, state officials said.
The Oakland Police Department dive rescue team pulled the man to
safety and resuscitated 34-year-old Guncel Karadogan, who was
talking and lucid as he was taken to a local hospital, where there
was no immediate word on his condition.
And in Monmouth, New Jersey, fire officials said the driver of a
mail truck and two people in another vehicle were rescued from flood
waters in separate incidents after the Shrewsbury River flooded
during high tide late Friday morning.
One victim was transported to Monmouth Medical Center. However, a
spokesperson could not release any information on that victim.
In Green Bay, Wisconsin, the temperature plummeted to -18 degrees
Fahrenheit (-28 C) on Friday, breaking a record for the date set in
1979, according to the National Weather Service.
Despite the frigid forecast predicted for the end of the weekend,
Green Bay Packers fans bought the remaining 40,000 tickets this week
for their team's National Football League playoff game against the
San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
The NFL threatened to prohibit local TV from airing the game if the
team was unable to sell out the game in Lambeau Field, where diehard
fans will brave the temperatures expected reach 0F (minus 18C)
during the game.
(Additional reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst and Barbara Goldberg in New
York; Daniel Lovering in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Jeffrey B. Roth
in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Kevin Murphy in Kansas City, Missouri;
Dave Warner in Philadelphia; Mary Wisniewski in Chicago; David
Bailey in Minneapolis; Ian Simpson in Washington; David Jones in
Newark, New Jersey; Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee and Dan Whitcomb in
Los Angeles; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Lisa Shumaker)
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