Snow piles up fast, choking travel in Northeast
By GINA Cappello, Associated Press, 12/30/00
Blizzard-like weather enveloped parts of the Northeast on Saturday, forcing all of New York's airports to close and Philadelphia to declare a snow emergency. Hundreds of flights were canceled, trains and buses were ordered off the roads, and traffic on highways slowed to a crawl as work crews struggled to keep up with nature's abundance.
Snow extended from southern New Jersey to Maine, coating the region in ghostly white. By early evening, more than two feet of snow had fallen in central New Jersey and a foot had fallen in New York City.
In New Hampshire, state police in Concord reported numerous accidents on Interstate 89 in the New London area and on Interstate 93 in the Tilton area. By early evening, as the snow continued to accumulate in the region, there had not been any serious accidents, state police said.
Eleven inches of snow had fallen in Jaffrey, N.H., in Cheshire County, and 10 inches was reported in Peterborough by nightfall. Forecasters said 4 to 8 inches of snow was expected to fall overnight in parts of Carroll, Coos and Franklin counties.
``We're going right at it, we're trying to keep up with it as much as we can,'' said Scott Pollock, superintendent of the Nashua Street Department.
In Nashua, 74 city plows were out clearing the snow-covered streets.
``I think it's a little more intense than we expected,'' Pollock said. ``We're getting 2 inches of snow an hour right now. That's a lot of snow an hour. We'll go right through 'til the snow's done.''
In other parts of the East Coast, the snow was falling just as fast.
``It's going to be hard to keep pace with this,'' Bob Catene said as he shoveled the walk in front of the Italian food store he runs in Brooklyn. ``After this one I'll be snowed out for the rest of the season.''
As he fought to clear his walk, thunder crackled in the gray sky.
Others reveled in the snow.
``There's nothing quite like a walk in the morning with a new snow. The world seems so pure, so beautiful,'' said Jeffrey Greene of Merion, Pa.
Dale Livingston of Montclair, N.J., a 58-year-old baritone, took a bus into New York City so he could perform in the New York Philharmonic's sold-out Beethoven 9th Symphony concert Saturday night.
``This is a grand adventure,'' Livingston said as his bus skidded sideways up a hill in Bloomfield, N.J. ``When it is all over it is going to be boring.''
New York's Kennedy Airport was down to one runway, then closed, joining La Guardia and Newark airports. Philadelphia's airport was open but airlines reported dozens of delays and cancellations. Amtrak canceled its Metroliner service between New York and Washington.
In Philadelphia, Mayor John Street declared a snow emergency, meaning only emergency vehicles are allowed downtown.
Some of the East Coast escaped the brunt of the storm because it developed farther north and east than forecast - by 10 a.m., the sky was clear in Washington.
More than 1,300 plows were at work in New Jersey state highways alone, but most remained snow-covered. Speeds were restricted to 35 mph on the New Jersey Turnpike and Atlantic City Expressway.
Work crews in several states had been put on standby for what could be the area's heaviest snowfall since January 1996. That storm dumped more than 20 inches of snow across parts of the East, including New York and Pennsylvania.
``After they said there was going to be a foot of snow, I came right out to get eggs and milk,'' Jacqueline Logan of Harrisburg, Pa., said Friday as she added hot dogs, orange juice and toilet paper to her shopping cart. ``I just don't want to run out of anything.''
In Philadelphia, the Eagles were scrambling to rid Veterans Stadium of snow for Sunday's playoff game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The team borrowed field tarps and heaters from Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh to protect and dry the field. And the Meadowlands in New Jersey sent large plastic chutes to help remove snow from the stands.
In Somers Point, N.J., Shore True Value Hardware sold all 300 shovels that had been delivered the day before. Another delivery was expected, and Austin Gibbons, 79, said he would be back. In the meantime, he was headed to a liquor store: ``I need a bottle of J&B. That's going to hold me over.''
Customers at Pennington Market in Pennington, N.J., bought milk, bread and soup - along with snacks and deli trays - to prepare for both the storm and the New Year's weekend.
And shoppers at Pelican Ski & Snowboard Shops in Morris Plains, N.J., grabbed sleds along with snow boots and long johns.
Pelican Ski store owner Ken Spilatro said sales have doubled in the past few days, a welcome development after a stretch of warm winters. ``We've been waiting for this for a couple of years,'' he said.
Elsewhere, people across the Plains continued to deal with the aftermath of the storms that hit earlier in the week, killing at least 40 people. Electric workers fought bitter cold and ice for a fifth day as they struggled to restore power to tens of thousands of homes in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
