| ABC News | - |
A
storm brought a new round of wind-whipped snow to New England on
Sunday, accompanied by near-whiteout conditions and lightning strikes in
coastal areas as people contended with a fourth winter onslaught in
less than a month.
Latest in 'Biblical' Series of Snowstorms Slams New England
A storm brought a new round of wind-whipped snow to New England on
Sunday, accompanied by near-whiteout conditions and lightning strikes in
coastal areas as people contended with a fourth winter onslaught in
less than a month.
A blizzard warning was in effect for coastal communities from Rhode Island
to Maine, with no reprieve in sight: A bone-chilling blast of cold,
with lows of minus-10 degrees was in the Sunday night forecast in parts
of the region.
Frank Libby, who was out trying to find newspapers in Boston Sunday
morning, said it seems every few days the city is getting slammed with
another foot of snow.
"It's historic. It's biblical," the 62-year-old attorney said as he
walked down a deserted street in the city's Back Bay neighborhood. "I
think we're in uncharted territory. People just don't know how to deal
with the logistics of it."
He had one message for Mother Nature: "Give us a break."
A foot of snow had fallen across much of eastern Massachusetts
by Sunday morning, with Ipswich and Salisbury recording 20 inches,
according to the National Weather Service. Before it is all over,
coastal areas of New Hampshire and southern Maine could see up to 2 feet, weather forecasters said.
As the storm lashed the coastline of Cape Cod Bay with heavy surf and
nearly a foot of fresh snow, Red Cross volunteer Marc Lieber was riding
it out at home in Sagamore Beach. He was on standby, but even if called,
he said he probably would not be able to deploy.
"I can't get out of my driveway," Lieber said. "The earlier snow hasn't gone away, and now this."
Gov. Charlie Baker in Massachusetts said Sunday morning that high tide
was not as severe as anticipated, with no reports of major flooding, but
warned that winds gusting over 60 mph could bring power outages.
"There's a little bit of deja vu all over again in this," he said.
One house of worship, the Union United Methodist Church in Boston,
canceled Sunday services and instead was holding a prayer call via
telephone.
Transportation officials in the region had taken precautions. Nearly 400
Sunday flights were canceled at Boston's Logan International Airport,
including all morning flights. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation
Authority canceled all rail, bus and ferry service in the Boston area on
Sunday.
William Babcock, a weather service meteorologist, said gusts could max out at 75 mph — hurricane territory — on Cape Cod.
On Cape Ann north of Boston, Patrick McGehee said he was grateful is
power did not go out, especially after witnessing the storm's strength
when he took his dog outside Sunday morning. At one point the sky lit up
with lighting strikes.
"I wasn't sure what was going on, if it was some kind of spiritual event
or what. The whole sky lit up like somebody lit up a lightbulb," said
McGehee, the owner of the Mary's by the Sea summer rental business in
Rockport. "My God, this is pretty interesting."
Ahead of the storm, forces gathered to remove piles of snow and ready
for the next round. More than 6 feet of snow was already standing in
some areas near Boston from previous storms.
Massachusetts called up hundreds of National Guard troops to assist with
snow removal, and the Hanscom Air Force base outside Boston became a
staging area for heavy equipment pouring in from eight other Northeast
states to help in the effort.
Crews worked in Boston's Financial District to remove the massive
amounts of snow that clogged streets and triggered numerous roof
collapses.
The bad weather spanned several states — winter storm warnings extended
west into Michigan and Ohio, where whiteout conditions led to a pileup
on the Ohio Turnpike that killed at least two people. Another
storm-related crash on the New York Thruway south of Buffalo killed one
person.
In Maine, powerful gusts of winds reduced visibility up and down the coast.
"The wind is blowing hard. It's hard to know if it's snowing or not
because there's so much snow blowing through the air," said Suzannah
Gale, co-owner of the Home Port Inn, in the town of Lubec, at the
state's easternmost tip. "It's piled up around the windows. It's just
piled up everywhere."
———
AP writers William J. Kole in Bourne, Massachusetts, Sylvia Lee
Wingfield in Boston and David Sharp in Portland, Maine contributed to
this report. Melia reported from Hartford, Connecticut.
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