NEW YORK — The biggest winter storm in close to 90 years walloped the mid-Atlantic states Saturday, shutting down Washington, D.C. and burying the region in power outages, flight cancellations and miserable driving conditions.
In northern Virginia,
two people were killed when they were struck by a truck as they helped
a motorist stuck in the snow. On the state’s transportation Twitter
page, accidents and disabled vehicles were being reported every few
minutes.
Some two feet of snow have already fallen in some areas by midafternoon, and it continued to pile up across northern Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New York, and southern New Jersey, according to AccuWeather.
The heaviest snow was predicted to taper off by the
evening in most areas, but howling winds and drifting snow likely will
make travel difficult through the night, the weather service said.
Below-freezing temperatures were being reported as far south as Richmond, Va., and could stretch to Columbia, S.C. overnight.
Saturday’s storm could be the largest since the 1922
Knickerbocker storm that dropped 28 inches of snow across the
mid-Atlantic region and up to 33 inches in some areas around Washington, D.C. The storm got its name from Washington’s Knickerbocker Theater, whose roof collapsed on Jan. 28, 1922, from the weight of the snow, killing 98 moviegoers and injuring 133, according to the Washington Weather book Web site.
Braving the blizzard to give a speech before the Democratic National Committee winter meeting, President Barack Obama referred to the storm as “snowmageddon.”
Throughout the day Saturday, air travel was snarled. Reagan International and Dulles airports near Washington, D.C., canceled all flights. There were also cancellations at Newark, Philadelphia and Baltimore airports.
Philadelphia International said it expects nearly all of its
Saturday flights will be canceled too, saying crews have been working
against whiteout conditions to clear runways, the Associated Press reported.
Typical delays were being reported for New York’s LaGuardia and Kennedy airports, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Though Brooklyn and Staten Island had several inches of snow, New York City’s other boroughs, Manhattan, Queens and Harlem, have so far been sparred.
Delta Air Lines, US Airways, and JetBlue Airways, among others, were offering customers a chance to rebook their flights at no cost.
State governments pleaded for residents to stay off the road except in case of emergency. Along the New Jersey
shoreline, which was expected to see blizzard-like conditions
throughout the day, local government banned all personal driving except
for emergencies, CNN reported.
The entire state of New Jersey
was under an extreme weather advisory, with N.J. Transit suspending
most bus service and reducing train service until further notice.
“We urge residents to avoid driving except for the most urgent reasons,” said Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.
“If drivers stay off the roads it will help the dedicated state and
local highway crews clear the rods in a safe and efficient manner.”
Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware were under states of emergency, with National Guard units on standby to help if needed.
The New Jersey-New York Port Authority pulled in extra manpower to keep tunnels and bridges clear.
Virginia’s Web site reported about 185,000 people in northern Virginias were without power. And some 160,000 people were without power in Pennsylvania, according to its Web site.
“Snowfall totals across Pennsylvania range from about six to as much as 30 inches,” said Governor Rendell.
Power company Pepco said south Maryland was experiencing “significant” power outages.
The Virginia Department of Transportation said it was still cleaning up from two other winter storms from the past week, and has spent some $79 million on snow removal this year and has now tapped a $25 million emergency reserve fund.
—
(c) 2010, MarketWatch.com Inc.
Visit MarketWatch on the Web at http://www.marketwatch.com
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
