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The big freeze follows the big storm: Northeast rushes to clear deadly black ice from roads
The race was on to clear roadways in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic of ice on Thursday as overnight temperatures are set to drop well below freezing after a massive nor’easter dumped record piles of snow, leaving six people dead and nearly 100,000 customers without electricity.
With temperatures set to drop into the teens and single digits in parts of New England in the 20s in New York, officials are warning that the snow and sleet could turn into black ice.
Crews were rushing to clear the roads of slush all across the Northeast before the morning commute on Friday.
‘We’re starting to catch up now, but this has been a tough storm,’ Massachusetts State Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver told NBC10 Boston.
‘We’re really concerned right now about this flash-freeze. The temperatures are dropping rapidly.’
Crews all across Massachusetts had been working all day on Thursday to salt the roads, but officials said the dipping temperatures will pose a problem. High temperatures on Friday across the Bay State will reach just the mid-20s.
‘Really we’re going to continue to advise people, stay in if you can and if you have to be out there, really expect there to be some really tough conditions,’ Gulliver said.
A crew clears snow near the Massachusetts Statehouse in the Beacon Hill section of Boston, Massachusetts, on Thursday
Snow covers the street after a snowstorm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Thursday
A snowplow removes snow from a sidewalk in Stamford, Connecticut, on Thursday
Gina Hanson of Battleboro, Vermont, is seen above walking on Main Street during Winter Storm Gail on Thursday
Pedestrians walk along the streets in The Bronx during a snowstorm on Thursday morning
Temperatures in the Northeast United States are expected to drop to well below freezing, raising the risk of icy conditions
The blizzard-like conditions on Wednesday and Thursday led to the deaths of six people.
Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, two people were killed in a 60 car pile-up in Clinton County and many more were taken to hospital with injuries.
A one-vehicle crash in Snyder County left the driver dead after they lost control of the car due to the treacherous conditions.
One Pennsylvania man died after he was struck by a municipal snowplow in North Versailles on Tuesday evening.
Another person died in one of more than 200 collisions in Virginia and more than 350 crashes were reported in Maryland by the early hours of Thursday morning, as authorities begged residents to stay home.
Authorities in New York State said that two residents died as a result of the storm, but no details were provided.
In Pittsburgh, two EMS workers managed to escape unscathed when a truck lost control and plowed head-on into their vehicle when they were responding to a separate crash.
The storm also knocked out power to tens of thousands of households across the region. More than 10,000 customers in New Jersey reported loss of electricity while some 2,000 lost power on Long Island.
In New England, the outages were more severe. Some 6,500 customers in Massachusetts and more than 20,000 in Maine were without power during the course of the storm.
More than 57,200 homes and businesses in Virginia were left without power on Wednesday night.
The Northeast’s first whopper snowstorm of the season buried parts of upstate New York under more than 3 feet of snow, broke records in cities and towns across the region, and left plow drivers struggling to clear the roads as snow piled up at more than 4 inches per hour.
‘It was a very difficult, fast storm and it dropped an unbelievable amount of snow,’ Tom Coppola, highway superintendent in charge of maintaining 100 miles of roads in the Albany suburb of Glenville, said Thursday.
Jordayn Dermody, 13, sleds after more than a foot of snowfall was recorded in Kingston, Pennsylvania, on Thursday
A woman shovels a sidewalk in Boston, Massachusetts, on Thursday after more than a foot of snow fell there between Wednesday and Thursday
Don Houghton shovels the snow from a section of sidewalk on Elliot Street, in Brattleboro, Vermont, on Thursday
Phil Whiteneck, of Meriden, Connecticut, is covered in snow as he clears the driveway of his residence on Willis Avenue
A person shovels snow by a Christmas tree market in the Kips Bay section of New York City during a snow storm on Thursday
The US Capitol building is seen behind a pile of melting snow in Washington, DC, on Thursday
‘It’s to the point where we’re having trouble pushing it with our plows.’
The storm dropped 30 inches on Glenville between 1am and 6am on Thursday, leaving a silent scene of snow-clad trees, buried cars and laden roofs when the sun finally peeked through at noon.
‘If you do not have to be on the roads, please don’t travel,’ said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who declared a state of emergency for 18 counties.
He said there were more than 9,000 power outages, 600 accidents and two fatalities by midmorning on Thursday.
A man runs along the boardwalk in Long Beach, a town on the south shore of Long Island, on Thursday
The above image shows an aerial view of a man running along the beach in the southern Long Island town of Long Beach, New York, on Thursday
The boardwalk in the Long Island town of Long Beach, New York, is largely desolate after the snowstorm on Thursday
The above image shows an aerial view from a drone above the Long Island town of Plainview, New York, where residents with sleds take advantage of the icy road on Fams Drive on Thursday
The Long Island region was blanketed with between 6 inches and one foot of snow in their first snowstorm of the season. The image above shows an aerial view of people sledding at Newbridge Road Park in Merrick, New York, on Thursday
In New Rochelle in Westchester County, where a foot of snow was recorded, the roof of a Mavis Discount Tire store partially caved in but no injuries were reported, according to CBSN New York.
In Broome County, where the regional center of Binghamton got a record 42 inches of snow, County Executive Jason Garnar said snow fell at a rate of 4 to 5 inches per hour.
‘This is the fastest rate of snowfall I’ve ever encountered,’ he said.
In Ithaca, it took Fred Cullin, 23, more than an hour and a half to dig out of his steep, lakeside driveway that was packed with nearly 3 feet of snow piled up by plows.
‘It was pretty crazy,’ Cullin said. ‘Shoveling uphill, on ice, was definitely interesting.’
Much of Pennsylvania saw accumulations in the double digits.
Boston had more than 9 inches of snow early on Thursday morning, breaking the previous record for the date of 6.4 inches in 2013. Some parts of The Hub recorded more than a foot of snow.
In Boston’s Seaport neighborhood, the streets were mostly empty except for an army of workers blowing sidewalks clear in front of luxury apartment buildings, stores and office towers.
A Penn DOT plow truck clears snow from US Route 11 in Danville, Pennsylvania, on Thursday
Larry Rounds shovels out his sister Rachael Rounds’ vehicle on Line Street in Frackville, Pennsylvania, on Thursday
Juan Otero, an employee at a Burger King in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, breaks up the snow for the snow blower to clear a path to the restaurant on Thursday
Otero uses a snow blower to clear the path at the Burger King in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, on Thursday
Walter Yonchuk shovels snow from the roof of a Spring Street home in Port Carbon, Pennsylvania, on Thursday
Asma Yeasmin (left) and daughter, Humyra Ferdus, 15, shovel heavy snow at the end of their driveway on Johnson Avenue in Meriden, Connecticut, on Thursday
Yenelis Martinez, 7, of Meriden, Connecticut, starts a fresh path in heavy snow while sledding down a slope at Hubbard Park in Meriden on Thursday
Greenwich Street in Greenwich, Connecticut, digs out after receiving up to a foot of snow on Thursday
Snow is cleared on street in Binghamton, New York, after a heavy snowfall on Thursday. Binghamton Airport reported 39.1 inches of snow and another spot in Binghamton reported 41.0 inches, according to the National Weather Service
Men walk past more than a foot of snowfall atop of Christmas trees for sale outside of a Walmart in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, on Thursday
‘It’s been a while since we have had this,’ said Mark Pusung, a 33-year-old Seaport resident walking his Shar-Pei dog Muffin.
‘I wanted my dog to experience it because he could run around.’
Xicheng Cai, 28, a consultant who lives and works in Seaport, was decked out in what he called his full polar gear including boots, windproof pants and ski goggles.
‘Wonderful,’ he said of the snow. ‘This is what Christmas should look like.’
A few blocks away, Sara Boxell, 33, who lives in South Boston, was in the middle of her 4-mile run.
‘I love it,’ she said. ‘Luckily, I’m working from home so I don’t have to drive anywhere.’
Massachusetts’ transportation chief said it could take longer than usual to clear snow-clogged highways and streets because the coronavirus pandemic has knocked one in 10 plow drivers out of action.
New Yorkers enjoy the snow in Central Park after a nor’easter dumped as much as eight inches in parts of the city
A person walks in Central Park during a snow storm as the sun pushes through heavy clouds on Thursday
People visit the Bethesda Fountain in New York City’s Central Park during Thursday’s snow storm
A snow man is seen above as New Yorkers enjoy the day in Central Park on Thursday
A silhouette of a couple embraces under the Bethesda Terrace in Central Park during the snowstorm on Thursday
A person sleds down the stairs at Bethesda Terrace in New York’s Central Park on Thursday
People wearing masks walk along The Mall in Central Park during a snow storm on Thursday
A woman holding a heart shaped umbrella stands on Bow Bridge during a snow storm in Central Park on Thursday
A person walks along Bow Bridge during a snow storm in New York City’s Central Park on Thursday
Children enjoy sledding at Central Park in New York City on Thursday after as much as 8 inches fell in the area
Snow plows grappled to keep pace with the level of snowfall Thursday morning with two to four inches an hour at times across the state.
Emergency services responded to more than 100 road traffic accidents through the night, and the National Grid was called out to respond to a site in Auburn where a utility pole snapped after a car slammed into it.
Auburn police issued an alert warning residents that Millbury Street at the Farmer’s Daughter was closed at around 12:30 a.m. and released a picture of the car wrapped around the pole.
Over on Route 44 in Carver, another car burst into flames in the aftermath of another crash Wednesday night, with firefighters responding to the scene.
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker told WCVB Thursday about 4,000 residents had been left without power but most outages had been fixed by around midday.
‘If you have to go out, be careful. And remember, driving in this kind of stuff isn’t something we’ve had to do for the last couple of years,’ he said.
Baker likewise raised the alarm Wednesday as Boston braced for up to a foot of snow.
‘If you absolutely don’t have to travel tonight or tomorrow, it would be great if you could just stay put and let the road crews do the work that they need to do,’ he said.
‘The last thing we all need to deal with right now, in the midst of everything else that’s going on, are car accidents and other collisions as a result of what will be fairly treacherous driving conditions.’
The New York City Emergency Management Department brought in 330,000 tons of salt and 2,000 vehicles to plow the streets in anticipation of ‘heavy snow and breezing conditions could cause near-blizzard conditions’.
Washington, DC, also deployed more than 300 snow plows to apply salt to highways, streets, ramps, bridges and elevated roadways overnight Tuesday as forecasters predicted Gail would bring a mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain.
The heaviest accumulation by Thursday morning was 45 inches near Binghamton, New York, a record for December if not all time, as snowfall amounts in parts of central Pennsylvania topped 40 inches, 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.
A boy glides along the snow in his sled during a day of fun in New York’s Central Park on Thursday
A young boy rides his sled down a snowy hill in the middle of New York’s Central Park on Thursday
Children enjoy the aftermath of a huge snowstorm in New York City by sledding in Central Park on Thursday
Parents and their children enjoy the snowy hills of Central Park on Thursday as they ride their sleds
A young boy darts down a snowy hill in his sled in the middle of New York’s Central Park on Thursday
A group of children ride their sleds in unison during a day of fun in New York’s Central Park on Thursday
Scores of people showed up with their children for a fun-filled, snowy day in New York’s Central Park on Thursday
A young girl slides down a snowy hill in the middle of New York’s Central Park on Thursday afternoon
Families gathered in New York’s Central Park on Thursday to take advantage of the piles of snow dumped by a massive storm on Thursday
Two children tend to a snowman in New York’s Central Park on Thursday afternoon
The snowstorm gave people much needed excuse to go outside in the midst of a months-long pandemic that has largely kept New Yorkers indoors
New Yorkers took advantage of the rare snowstorm and brought their children out to glide on the white stuff with their sleds
New Yorkers ride on their sleds as the scenic views of Central Park are seen above in the background on Thursday
New York’s Central Park was a winter wonderland on Thursday in the aftermath of a massive snowstorm
One New Yorkers walks dogs in Central Park as the area was digging out of a snowstorm that dumped as much as 8 inches in the area
New Yorkers walk a snow covered path amid trees in Central Park on Thursday afternoon
A lake in New York City’s Central Park is partially frozen after a massive snowstorm on Thursday
People visit snow-covered Washington Square Park in the historic Greenwich Village district of Manhattan on Thursday
A man sleds in the snow while wearing a mask in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York, on Thursday
A woman skis in the snow while wearing masks in the Prospect Park section of Brooklyn on Thursday afternoon
New Yorkers left a snowman to observe the scenic views in the Prospect Park section of Brooklyn on Thursday
The Manhattan Bridge is seen above rising over the Dumbo section of Brooklyn after a massive snowstorm swept through the area on Thursday
Parts of northern New England saw as much as 7 inches of snow per hour, said Margaret Curtis, meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
A rate of 1 inch per hour is typically enough to make it hard for snowplow trucks to keep up.
Snow totals topped 3 feet across a wide swath of New Hampshire, and Maine’s southernmost county saw 1 to 2 feet.
Hazardous roads caused dozens of crashes in New Hampshire, Connecticut and eastern New York.
New York State Police said a snowmobiler was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer on Interstate 787 in downtown Albany at 2:30am.
In Maine, snowboarder Fletcher Moffett grabbed a few runs at the Sunday River ski resort before reporting to work as a bartender.
‘Being outside is keeping me sane’ during the pandemic, he said.
A pedestrian moves out of the way of a plow on a narrow street during Winter Storm Gail in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston on Thursday
More than a foot of snow fell in some parts of Boston on Thursday. The image above shows a woman walking through the city
Few people could be seen on the streets of downtown Boston on Thursday after the area was pounded by a snowstorm
Some parts of Boston reported more than 12 inches of snow, shattering records. The image above shows Bostonians near the Boston Garden on Thursday
Bostonians try to navigate the treacherous terrain caused by snow, sleet, and ice on Thursday
Officials in Massachusetts are warning that the drop in temperatures could make it even more dangerous to go outside
A woman plays with a dog during the massive snowstorm in Boston, Massachusetts, on Thursday
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker tweeted: ‘This drop in temperatures across central + eastern MA creates the risk for a flash freeze that will make conditions even more difficult in addition to the snow. Please stay off the roads. If you must go out, build in extra time, take it slow and don’t crowd the plow.’
The weather forecast calls for low temperatures to reach just 20 degrees in Boston, increasing the risk of icy conditions
Snowplows are seen above clearing snow from the streets of downtown Boston on Thursday
Dogs play with each other in near white-out conditions on the Boston Common on Thursday
Dogs play with a frisbee in near white-out conditions on the Boston Common on Thursday afternoon
A man helps a woman with a baby carriage during a snow storm in Boston, Massachusetts, on Thursday
Cars are covered in snow and pedestrians walk on deserted Chestnut Street in Boston, Massachusetts, on Thursday
Charles Street in Boston, Massachusetts, is largely deserted during a massive snowstorm on Thursday
People walk their dogs on the snow-blanketed Commonwealth Mall in Boston, Massachusetts, on Thursday
Snow plows head down Beacon Street in Boston, Massachusetts, on Thursday afternoon
The image above shows snow and ice hanging from branches of a tree in the Boston Public Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, on Thursday
Snow is whipped around by the wind on Boylston Street in downtown Boston as a snow squall blows through on Thursday
Snow is seen near the entrance to the Copley MBTA station in Boston, Massachusetts, on Thursday
A couple crosses the Boston Public Garden bridge in Boston, Massachusetts, on Thursday
The Boston Public Garden is covered in snow after more than a foot fell in some parts of The Hub on Thursday
Snow covers cars on Spruce Street in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, on Thursday
A couple takes a romantic stroll through snowed-out Boston Common in Boston, Massachusetts, on Thursday
A man on Beacon Hill clears off his car as a group returns from sledding on Boston Common on Thursday afternoon
A woman takes a photo of her dog while out on a walk in the snow near North Station in Boston on Thursday
Kevin Slattery of Boston takes his daughters Emma Slattery, 4, and Bella Slattery, 6, sledding on Boston Common
A cross-country skier takes advantage of a fresh blanket of snow near North Station in Boston on Thursday
A woman jogs through the snowy Boston Common braving 20-degree temperatures and whipping winds on Thursday
Bostonians walk through Boston Common on Thursday as officials urged residents to stay indoors
Pedestrians cross a slushy and nearly deserted Beacon Street in Boston, Massachusetts, on Thursday
A woman walks past snow covered trees on Boston Common in Boston, Massachusetts, on Thursday afternoon
A man leans into the wind as he crosses Causeway Street in Boston near North Station on Thursday
A pedestrian walks past the Massachusetts Statehouse in the Beacon Hill section of Boston on Thursday
Crews clear the steps of the Statehouse in the Beacon Hill section of Boston, Massachusetts, on Thursday
The overnight snowfall eclipsed the entire amount recorded for all of last winter in New York City, where 6.5 inches of snow covered Central Park – much less than the initial predictions of up to 12 inches.
Snowplows were careful to avoid damaging outdoor dining spaces erected for the pandemic at Manhattan restaurants, where dining was to resume Thursday night.
In a lighthearted moment at a daily briefing by Mayor Bill de Blasio, the official in charge of snow removal, Edward Grayson, cautioned: ‘It’s not a night to wear your good shoes.’
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, only a few power outages were reported, including 35,000 in Virginia and 4,100 in New Jersey. More than 3,700 of the New York outages were in homes on Long Island.
Source: Daily Mail |World News
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