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 The first major snowstorm of the season, which was expected to move
out to sea by Thursday evening, prompted officials to urge the
region's 50 million residents to stay home.
"Given the heavy (snow) and difficult travel conditions, drivers are
encouraged to stay off the road if they can during the storm,"
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker said on Twitter.
Two people were killed in a storm-related pileup of 30 to 60 cars on
Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania on Wednesday. New York State Troopers
reported 600 crashes and two fatalities on Thursday.
The Nor'easter, which delivered freezing rain and a wintry mix to
some Mid-Atlantic states on Wednesday, unleashed the most snow on an
inland swath from north central Pennsylvania through southern New
Hampshire.
The heaviest accumulation by Thursday morning was 45 inches (114 cm)
near Binghamton, New York, a record for December if not all time, as
snowfall amounts in parts of central Pennsylvania topped 40 inches
(102 cm), according to meteorologist Bob Oravec of the National
Weather Service.
"It's a historic storm for areas inland that got underneath the snow
band," Oravec said by phone from the NWS Weather Prediction Center
in College Park, Maryland.
"If you get underneath one of those bands, the snow rate can be
tremendous -- four or five inches per hour -- and that's what
occurred today," he said.
The storm left the New York City area with six to 10 inches (15 to
25 cm), more than all of last year's winter storms combined, as it
wound down on Thursday morning, the National Weather Service said.
PLANE SLIDES OFF RUNWAY
The New York State capital of Albany was set to get more than 30
inches (76 cm) and Boston had nearly a foot (30 cm) with several
hours of snowfall yet to go on Thursday morning, it said.
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 For areas of the Eastern
Seaboard near the coast, including southern New
Jersey and Massachusetts' Cape Cod, the storm
brought rain, high winds and some flooding.
BWI Airport near Baltimore reported that a
Spirit Airlines jet with 111 people aboard slid
off a runway as it taxied after landing on
Thursday morning. No injuries were reported.
Dozens of flights were canceled at other major
airports, including 123 at Newark Liberty
International Airport in New Jersey.
Amtrak announced dozens of cancellations on its
busy Boston-Washington corridor on Thursday,
including all Acela service.
Mass transit was snarled with delays and
cancellations including New Jersey Transit's
rail and bus service in the northern part of the
state, which was set to resume later on
Thursday.
Despite the snow and wind gusts of up to 50
miles per hour (80 km per hour), only a few
power outages were reported, including 35,000 in
Virginia and 4,100 in New Jersey.
While a winter storm usually means a "snow day"
for kids, many school districts, including New
York City public schools, stayed open and
continued operating remotely in the pandemic
mode they have been using for months.
The storm may have slowed some deliveries of the
newly available COVID-19 vaccine, but officials
did not expect it to disrupt the pipeline.
 “I’m not aware of any place that was expecting
it and won’t get it," New Jersey Governor Phil
Murphy told a briefing on Thursday. "It just
might be a little later than otherwise
expected.”
(Reporting by Peter Szekely in New York, Timothy
Garnder in Washington, Brendan O'Brien in
Chicago and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Writing
by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and
Lisa Shumaker)
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