A blizzard is slamming into New England and New York, with forecasters warning that it may bring up to 3 feet of snow and disrupt the lives of 40 million people




A blizzard predicted to be of epic proportions is pounding the Northeast, already bringing more than a foot of snow to some areas as 40 million residents in its path brace for the worst.
By 12:30 a.m. ET, about 500,000 homes and businesses had lost electricity as wet snow, freezing rain and howling winds caused havoc. Most of the outages are in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
More than 16 inches of snow has fallen in Mansfield, Mass., just southwest of Boston. More than 18 inches cover parts of central Connecticut.
And the worst is not expected until later Saturday, the National Weather Service warned. Blizzard warnings are in effect for the New York City metro area and many coastal sections of New England. Hurricane winds of up to 75 mph are also possible.
As part of a new effort to name winter storms, the Weather Channel dubbed the blizzard "Nemo."
Finding Nemo hasn't been an issue: it's been leaving noticeable havoc. The snow caused a 19-car, four-hour pileup on I-295 near Cumberland, Maine. Several people had minor injuries, police said. In Vermont, which could get 4 to 16 inches of snow, the storm was being blamed for a series of crashes on I-89 in Bolton and South Burlington. Two people were taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
More than 4,700 flights in the region had been canceled through Saturday, and Amtrak was suspending southbound service out of Boston and northbound service out of New York City by Friday afternoon. In New York, sleet was falling at LaGuardia and Newark airports. Another 240 flights were canceled at Toronto's Pearson International Airport, where nearly a foot of snow was forecast.
By 6 p.m. Friday, Wayne N.J., had 7 inches, Darien, Conn., 6 inches and parts of the New York metro area had received 2.5 inches. Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts had already declared a state of emergency. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency Friday afternoon as the storm intensified.
Maine Gov. Paul LePage sent state workers home at 3 p.m. and declared a limited emergency to allow longer hours for utility crews. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick banned all traffic from roads after 4 p.m., believed to be the state's first such ban since the blizzard of 1978. Forecasters said Boston could get more than the 27.6-inch record of 2003.
Utility officials are warning customers to prepare for power outages lasting for days. New England and New York are expected to take the hardest hit, but others around the country could feel the ripple effect from canceled flights trains and snarled traffic along the Eastern Seaboard, parts which are still reeling from the fallout of October's Superstorm Sandy.
Northeast New Jersey was bracing for up to 14 inches. Parts of the coast were expected to see waves up to 12 feet and minor to moderate flooding during high tide.
In New Jersey, residents of Brick Township and Toms River, both crippled by Sandy, were urged to evacuate Friday.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker urged residents to prepare for widespread power failures. Booker, a prolific Twitter user, urged his nearly 1.4 million followers to get ready for the storm. "Nwk's City Snow Team is prepared for 6-12 inches," he tweeted from @corybooker a couple minutes after 5 p.m. on Thursday. "We have many snow assets in reserve should storm get worse. Please take time 2 prepare too."

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New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the blizzard wasn't expected to rival Sandy's fallout, but urged everyone to "stay in your homes while the worst of the storm is upon us."
He urged New Yorkers to leave work early and avoid commuting Friday evening, when meteorologists predict the snowfall to intensify.
Bloomberg said there were no immediate plans to declare a storm emergency, because that would require vehicle owners to move them off emergency routes – raising the potential some could get stuck and block snowplows.
Similarly, Bloomberg did not order evacuations from low-lying areas, explaining that storm surges were not expected to reach Sandy's disastrous levels. Still, the city will have emergency shelters open and available for anyone who needs assistance, he said.

About 1,700 city Department of Sanitation snowplows were ready to start clearing streets Friday evening.
The New York City metro area, home to three airports and 20 million residents in four states, was bracing for up to 12 inches of snow, according to AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.
At 7 p.m. in downtown Boston, wind picked up to a point to where pedestrians had to occasionally hold onto light poles to keep from being blown down the street. Snow fell sideways and stung faces like needles.
Outside John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center, David Comar and workers shoveled as vigorously as the snow fell.

The team had been out since 1 p.m. and would work until about 9, when conditions were expected to intensify, said supervisor Jimmy Figueroa.
A couple of blocks away, Oscar Medrano, an employee of Central Parking Systems, continually drove a truck with plow through a small parking lot. Like the men outside the convention center, he'd also started in the afternoon. Medrano said he would keep shoveling until midnight.
"Just keeps coming," said Medrano, 40.
Massachusetts is keeping residents informed through a 2-year-old hyperlocal app called Ping4, which sends localized alerts to mobile phones.
Ping4 has the ability to send alerts only to phones within an affected geographical area so that people are not pummeled with alerts that do not affect them, said Jim Bender, founder and CEO of Ping4, based in Nashua, N.H.
In Boston, Mayor Thomas Menino said the city has 34,000 pounds of salt to treat icy roads. "Stay off the roads. Stay home. Let the public works crews do their jobs," Merino said.
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Louie Rodriguez of the New Bedford Forestry Department cuts a fallen tree at the intersection of Rotch St. and Maple St. in New Bedford, Mass., on Friday.  AP Photo/Peter Pereira, Standard Times
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  • Louie Rodriguez of the New Bedford Forestry Department cuts a fallen tree at the intersection of Rotch St. and Maple St. in New Bedford, Mass., on Friday.
  • A man operates a snowblower in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood on Friday.
  • People walk past a church as snow arrives in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood Friday.
  • A woman crosses Congress Street during a snow storm, Friday in Portland, Maine.
  • Robert Burck, aka the "Naked Cowboy," performs in Times Square as it snows Friday.
  • Snow falls on a pedestrian as she leaves the Rag & Bone Fall 2013 fashion collection show during Fashion Week, Friday.
  • Fashionistas bundle into a car after leaving the Rag & Bone Fall 2013 fashion collection show during Fashion Week, Friday.
  • Guy McChesney pulls Lucas McChesney and Nico Doyle on a sled up Munjoy Hill during a snow storm, Friday in Portland, Maine.
  • Men push a sports car up a snow-covered street during a winter storm in the Old Port neighborhood on Feb. 8 in Portland, Maine.
  • Jeannine Strampel walks past a statue of Alexander Hamilton along Commonwealth Avenue Mall in Boston.
  • Snowplow trucks are deployed on a road in Allentown, N.J.
  • A woman walks through snow and sleet on Broadway in New York City.
  • A worker spreads salt on a sidewalk as people prepare for a major winter storm in Manhattan.
  • Motorists drive under a warning sign on Interstate 291 in Springfield, Mass.
  • Sand and salt are loaded into a truck under Interstate 391 in Holyoke, Mass.
  • Passengers wait in terminal 2 at San Francisco International Airport after a snowstorm forced the cancellation of thousands of flights to the East Coast.
  • Andre Tranchemantague, left, and Will Guerette ski along a snow-covered road during a snowstorm in Portland, Maine.
  • Workers pile salt at a depot in New York.
  • A woman walks through a winter storm in Buffalo.
  • Russell Hardison walks through the snow to the bus stop in Buffalo.
  • Kevin Quick plows snow in front of M&T Bank during a winter storm in Buffalo.
  • People wait for a bus as snow falls at the Boston Seaport World Trade Center.
  • A traveller watches monitors displaying canceled flights at Logan International Airport in Boston. Officials said they would try to keep the airport open during the storm, but airlines had already canceled many flights through Saturday.
  • Monitors display canceled flights at Logan International Airport.
  • A pedestrian walks through falling snow in Washington Park as a major snowstorm approaches Albany, N.Y.
  • A man protects himself with a battered umbrella as he crosses the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City.
  • A woman is bundled up against the cold as she walks along Broadway.
  • A warning sign flashes for motorists on the expressway into Boston.
  • Cars are stuck in traffic as a winter storm arrives in Newington, N.H.
  • Jack Percoco reaches across empty shelves for a container of milk at a supermarket in Somerville, Mass. People stormed supermarkets and gas stations as they prepared for the arrival of a major snowstorm.
  • A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration map shows a major snowstorm over the northeastern United States.
  • Pedestrians walk through falling snow as they make their way to work on Delancey Street in New York City.
  • Jose Echevarria delivers gas to a station that ran out of fuel in Ellington, Conn. Many stations in the area ran out of gas as people filled their vehicles before the arrival of a major snowstorm.
  • People wait in line for gas at a station in Ellington.
  • Morning rush-hour traffic moves over the Williamsburg Bridge into Manhattan as snow begins to fall in New York City.
  • Snowplows are parked at a New York Department of Sanitation depot as snow begins to fall in Brooklyn.
The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth experienced an automatic shutdown at around 9:15 p.m. Friday after losing off-site power. Spokesman Neil Sheehan says that the reactor shut down without any problems and that backup generators are powering plant equipment.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says there's no threat to public safety.
As several businesses closed early to prepare for the storm, Downtown Wine & Spirits in Somerville, Mass., prepared for one of its busiest days this year. "The second most important thing besides food is booze," said Downtown Wine & Spirits wine buyer Peter Powlovich, 29.
With extra staff and beer, the liquor store remains open for normal business hours unless there's a power outage, Powlovich said.
The storm isn't expected to have a major economic impact on New England, said economist David Iaia of Lexington, Mass.-based IHS Global Insight.
"If everything just shuts down for a day, the vast majority of business merely gets shifted to before the storm or after the storm," Iaia said.
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Anticipating the storm's impact, every big U.S. airline has issued flexible re-booking policies. The move allowed most fliers ticketed to fly to airports in the storm's path to make one change to their flights without the standard change fees.
With such a large number of cancellations, the flight disruptions in New York and the Northeast are all but certain to ripple through airports across the nation. A flight from Houston to Los Angeles, for example, could become delayed or canceled if the aircraft or crew scheduled to fly it gets knocked off schedule because of problems in Boston or New York.
Snarled transportation aside, ski resorts all over New England are excited about the biggest snowfall of the season.
"If I had a tail, it would be wagging," says Stowe Mountain Resort spokesman Mike Colbourn. "Presidents (Day) week is next week, a big nor'easter – all of the stars are in alignment."
"As far as where the big ski areas are, we are at ground zero for this storm — we are in the 24-inch band," says Bruce McCloy, director of Marketing for Mount Sunapee Resort in Newbury, N.H., "We are so excited! It's going to be awesome. How are we getting ready? We are dancing a jig, and then after that, we are getting ready. We haven't had any big storms in the past two years, so this is really big."
Contributing: Melanie Eversley, Ben Mutzabaugh, Stephanie Haven; Alesha Williams, Laura Petrecca, Natalie DiBlasio, TIm Mullaney; Associated Press
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Massive power outages as 'Nemo' slams Northeast

What amazed me the most was that no one was allowed to drive 

today after 4 pm in the whole State of Massachusetts. Everyone 

was required to park their cars except for emergency vehicles.