A powerful snowstorm, the second to sweep across the Northeast in less than a week, arrived in the New York area on Wednesday morning, closing city schools and the United Nations, and threatening to play havoc with commuter schedules. þþNew York City had gone through a slow windup after days of forecasters’ warnings — and after largely missing out on the storm last weekend that had stopped much of the rest of the East Coast in very deep tracks: by the time most New Yorkers turned out the lights and went to bed on Tuesday, only light snow was falling — a tease for what the meteorologists said was coming. But by 7 a.m., the thick, wet flakes were sticking, even in places where snow almost never accumulates, like Times Square. þþ“It’s here,” said Brian Ciemnecki, a forecaster with the National Weather Service. þþHe said that New York would see 12 to 15 inches, a lot, but less than piled up in places farther south during the storm last week. Most of it was expected later in the day, potentially creating a nightmare home commute. þþThe city had plowed most major roadways overnight, and transit agencies reported that trains and buses began the day on schedule. There were unusual precautions, taken to keep things moving: city subway trains had been left in tunnels overnight to keep them from freezing, and New Jersey Transit said it would honor bus passes and tickets on its trains. But officials hoped many people would simply stay home, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took the rare step of ordering schools closed on Wednesday. þþTo the dismay of parents and the delight of students, public school districts in nearly every major city along the Eastern Seaboard from Baltimore and Maryland up north to Boston and Philadelphia followed suit, ensuring that Wednesday would be a day for children to hop on sleds instead of school buses. Districts in dozens of counties throughout New Jersey, Connecticut and the rest of New York state also announced Wednesday closures. þþ“The prognosis is for a very bad situation when these kids will be leaving school tomorrow afternoon,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said at a news conference on Tuesday. He cited forecasts calling for blizzard conditions with high winds and heavy snow by Wednesday afternoon that threatened to severely disrupt the evening commute. þþ“This storm is coming at precisely the wrong time to drive home tomorrow,” Mr. Bloomberg said. He urged people to use mass transportation instead of their cars on Wednesday. þþTransportation up and down the East Coast was already grinding to a halt. Several major airlines — including Southwest and Continental — announced that they had canceled all or many of their Wednesday flights out of Washington, New York, Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and several other East Coast cities. Airports in Washington and Baltimore were at a near standstill. þþAmtrak, meanwhile, said that it would continue its Northeast regional train service but warned of service disruptions. In Washington, all but emergency workers were given the day off Wednesday; some suburban school systems in Maryland had already given up on classes for the rest of the week. The House majority leader, Steny H. Hoyer, a Democrat from Maryland, said that the snow had created such a challenge for workers trying to clear streets in Washington that Congress would consider providing federal disaster assistance to the city. þþRoss Dickman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Upton, N.Y., warned of a one-two punch of hard weather. þþ“It may come in two bursts, a good burst in the morning hours, and then the wind will pick up in the afternoon,” Mr. Dickman said. þþThe storm originated in the Midwest, where it swept as much as a foot of snow in some cities on Tuesday, snarling traffic in the air and on the ground in Chicago, Minneapolis and Detroit. Hundreds of flights were canceled at Chicago’s two airports, and Southwest Airlines stopped all flights for 24 hours until the storm was expected to end on Wednesday morning. Dozens of schools were closed, and all of the city’s snow-fighting trucks were deployed to clear streets for only the second time this winter. þþ“This is probably the worst storm we’ve had this winter, but it is manageable,” said Matt Smith, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Streets and Sanitation. “It could be disruptive in Washington, D.C. In cities like Chicago and New York, we have the equipment to fight the storm. We’re used to it.” þþWith the snowfall, the Philadelphia region could break its record for winter snow, which was set in the 1995-96 winter at 65.5 inches. Already, the area had recorded 56.3 inches and was expecting 12 to 18 inches by late evening Wednesday. By 1 a.m., the airport in Philadelphia had reported 7 inches of snow. þþIn advance of the storm, Southwest Airlines canceled its flights on Wednesday at Philadelphia International Airport and US Airways canceled its flights through Wednesday afternoon. The Washington region is expecting anywhere from 10 to 20 inches on Wednesday, the National Weather Service said, and travelers taking to the skies there will once again face rerouting or rebooking. Most runways at the Washington area’s three airports took days to reopen after the last storm, and are likely to be closed again on Wednesday. þþIn a region not accustomed to such heavy snowfalls, many people seemed to be straining to cope with the snowscape. The District Department of Transportation said it had 750 people working 12-hour shifts using 250 pieces of snow equipment. Some of those have been breaking down under the continuous use, and crews were still far from finished clearing Washington’s streets three days after the last storm. þþ“I’m not sure what we could have done, except had more equipment, and because we don’t normally get this storm, it would be a waste of the taxpayers’ money,” said Karyn LeBlanc, a spokeswoman for the department. “People have to understand that this is unprecedented.” þþþAnahad O’Connor and Liz Robbins contributed reporting for this article.þ
Source: NY Times
