A powerful winter storm is whipping the U.S. Northeast with high winds and crashing surf while quickly piling up snow on the country’s major transportation routes. Hundreds of flights have been canceled and thousands of residents left without power.
New York City had reports of 8 to 11 inches of snow in places, with Central Park getting at least 5.3 inches by early Saturday morning, said Dominic Ramunni, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Upton, New York on Long Island. The storm could start winding down in the city through the afternoon, but temperatures will remain frigid and wind chills could make readings feel closer to zero degrees Fahrenheit or colder.
“We are getting into the fourth quarter of the storm for the New York City area,” Ramunni said by telephone.
Along coastal New Jersey, reports have been logged of more than 16 inches, and more than a foot of snow has fallen in some parts of central Long Island.
Boston is on track to get close to 2 feet or more of snow, said Marc Chenard, a senior branch forecaster with the U.S. Weather Prediction Center. Winds have reached hurricane-strength across some parts of Cape Cod and the Massachusetts coast, where power outages are the worst, according to the National Weather Service. Blizzard conditions could prevail from New Jersey to Maine, and the storm is set to intensify rapidly.
“Travel will be difficult at best, to impossible in areas,” Chenard said. “It is still strengthening and it has a ways to go.”
The storm is raking Interstate 95, a major highway linking the U.S. East Coast, which is also paralleled by the Northeast Corridor rail line and home to some of the country’s busiest airports. All forms of transportation through the area have suffered.
By early Saturday morning, the storm hadn’t done much damage to electric grids. However, at least 129,240 customers were without power across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, with Massachusetts accounting for 113,982 of them, according to PowerOutage.us, a website that tracks blackouts.
Since Friday, more than 5,800 flights were canceled around the U.S., according to FlightAware, an airline tracking service. The majority of those were in New York, Boston, Newark, Philadelphia and Washington. States of emergency were declared in many areas across the region including in New York and New Jersey.
On the ground, Amtrak canceled all high-speed Acela trains between Washington, New York and Boston and is running a modified schedule for Northeast Regional trains south of Manhattan.
The Long Island Rail Road has suspended service Saturday, while Metro-North, which runs north of New York into Connecticut will have a reduced schedule, the agency said in a statement. City subway and bus services could experience delays.
New Jersey Transit has canceled bus and Access Link services for now. Other lines are operating on weekend schedules where they can.
“If you have to go out, you will be able to drive in New York City — I strongly recommend you don’t,” said Edward Grayson, commissioner of the sanitation department.
In Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu declared a snow emergency and opened 24-hour shelters. New Jersey declared a state of emergency starting at 5 p.m. Friday in preparation for what Governor Phil Murphy called “a significant statewide snow event.” New York State followed suit at 8 p.m.
In addition to the warnings and watches that stretch all along the U.S. East Coast, Environment and Climate Change Canada is also warning residents in its eastern Maritime Provinces to prepare.
