Storm Batters NY, New England, Dumping More Than A Foot Of Snow; 350,000 Lose Power

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

By Associated Press, Updated: Friday, February 8, 11:02 PM

BOSTON — A storm that forecasters warned could be a blizzard for the history books, with a potential for up to 3 feet of snow, clobbered the New York-to-Boston corridor on Friday, grounding flights and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers across the Northeast.

By Friday evening, more than 14 inches of snow had fallen in Belmont, Mass., just northwest of Boston, and more than 13 inches covered parts of northeastern Connecticut. Throughout the Northeast, about 350,000 homes and businesses lost electricity as wet, heavy snow, freezing rain and howling winds caused havoc.

Earlier, as meteorologists warned of the impending blizzard conditions, shoppers from New Jersey to Maine crowded into supermarkets and hardware stores to buy food, snow shovels, flashlights and generators, something that became a precious commodity after Superstorm Sandy in October. Others gassed up their cars, another lesson learned all too well after Sandy. Across much of New England, schools closed well ahead of the first snowflakes.

“This is a storm of major proportions,” Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said. “Stay off the roads. Stay home.”

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/snowstorm-hits-new-york-and-new-england-could-rewrite-record-books-with-up-to-3-feet-of-snow/2013/02/08/df75f1ba-724d-11e2-b3f3-b263d708ca37_story.html

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[Wednesdays]

1. 500k without power now

I just now heard it on WCBS radio from NYC.

http://tunein.com/radio/WCBS-Newsradio-880-s27760/

[freshwest]

5. I wonder how many of those had damage with Sandy, too.

Although that many without power for a few hours or even a day is not unknown out here, and why we have gone hard for putting power underground in the last ten years out here. Hopefully these will just be brief outages, not the prolonged ones that happened with Sandy. And the cold is a consideration, always. Take care of yourselves, folks.

[Hissyspit]

15. NBC: 617,000 without power

@BreakingNews: RT @breakingstorm: Update: About 617,000 customers without power across Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, New York and New Jersey - @NBCNews

[sheshe2]

2. So far, Purveyor, we are still on here. Thank God...

Warm and toasty.

[freshwest]

6. Glad to hear it, sheshe!

[1983law]

10. Me too.

But I'm in the southwest.

[Cha]

13. Talked to my friend in Central New York, today, she...

She said the big storm was going to miss them.. coming on either side. So lucky them for a change.

Good to hear updates of warm and toasty!

[sheshe2]

19. OOOOOhhh

That is such a sweet picture!

[Cha]

20. I googled warm and toasty and

a bunch of images came up and I choose that one. I'm not even a cat person but that was too cozily descriptive to pass up.

[sheshe2]

21. Cat person...use to be.... however oh so cute...

I was just looking for a Night Owl pic to send to you!

[url=http://postimage.org/][img][/img][/url]

I think they call it insomnia.

[Cha]

24. That is one Cool Night Owl Pic..

Thanks, she! Insomnia for many but I like my night hours and not a morning person. I'm just a Night Owl.. I always flash on that James Taylor song..


A catfish he tends to groove on the water
It's just where he's bound to be
And a monkey kinds of flashes on fruits and bananas
So he lives in the top of a tree
But my eyes are made for darkness
And so the nighttime is right for me

Said I'm a night owl, honey
Sleep all day long

Read more at http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/6201/#iwAAoHIqki3M8315.99

By summer 1966 they were performing regularly at the high-visibility Night Owl Cafe in Greenwich Village alongside acts such as The Turtles and Lothar and the Hand People.[24]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Taylor

[sheshe2]

34. I am amazed to say that I am not familar with that song...

I do so love sweet baby james!

Thanks Cha!

Okay, I am a night owl!

[Cha]

37. Yeah,

you are! Good, I turned you on to a James Taylor song, she! how sweet is that?

[kiri]

3. hype and hype and hype

We are right next door to Belmont--nothing like 14 inches. Maybe 6-7. There is drifting, so probably one could find a pile 14 inches deep, but this report is nonsense.

There were some breezy moments, but even these have mostly stopped.

Hype and exaggeration serves no valid purpose. It is a very normal winter snow.

[WanderingAengus]

4. Hardly Hype

26 inches already here in Hamden, CT, with a long night to go. Drifts much higher than that.

Emergency vehicles and plows have been pulled in from the highways.

I'd take 6-7 inches any day over what we're getting.

[freshwest]

8. Better safe than sorry. How many were ridiculed for not taking Sandy seriously?

We don't know how it is for anyone so many miles away, just take care all DUers.

[sheshe2]

11. Normal winter snow. Okay must be like the blizzard of 78!

Perfectly normal!

Encore!

[xtraxritical]

28. It sounds like an "average" snow storm in the Great Lakes region.

[sheshe2]

12. 2:15 am here. Just came in from shoveling all that non existent snow.

Let me count...that was the sixth time that I cleared my mom's stairs since I got here at 2 pm.

I guess I should move out of the Burbs very soon...the town next to Belmont sounds great! You guys are exempt from snow!

Who knew????!

[Cha]

16. Night Owl

Snow Shoveler!

[BeyondGeography]

26. Connecticut believes the hype

http://www.ctnow.com/weather/hc-weather-snow-connecticut-0208-20130205,0,1509565.story

[Katorama]

33. Someone on CNN was yelling about MA Governor Patrick declaring a road ban yesterday.

They were going on about it being despotic.

I'm pretty sure most of us who actually live in New England understand why they do these things. There are just times when people can't do whatever the hell they want to.

[magical thyme]

27. maybe for you, not so much here in midcoast Maine

Woke up to a 4'+ drift in my front door. Made it out my back door, which had a small gap of only 3' deep or so that let me shove the door open a bit, and I promptly stepped into snow up to my chest. There is a small patch of bare ground along one side of my house, the rest of my "walk" to the barn was anywhere from mid-thigh to waist deep. I was barely able to squeeze myself through the crack I was able to open into the barn. The drift in front of my front door was now 6+ feet high (the wind had changed direction earlier this morning).

My 8 year old dog collapsed, shivering, licking his paw and refusing to move on our way back from the barn, despite my young dog and I clearing the path ahead of him. He's ok now, but it was very scary.

Still blowing and snowing like crazy up here. White out conditions with blizzard warning in effect until 4pm today.

[blaze]

29. Omigosh!!!!

Glad your puppy is ok! My two dogs will wait out in the snow for me to come home from work and they get little frozen balls of snow stuck between their toes and will be limping all around... I try to tell them to wait inside... <g>

Be careful! Don't try to shovel too much at once!!!

[mainer]

30. Why oh why didn't I take off my screen doors?

Can't get out most of my doors due to 4-foot drifts like yours, and can't push the screen doors open. Luckily we have one door without a screen, so we can get out of the house to shovel -- after the snow stops blowing.

[KittyWampus]

35. Well about 20 minutes east of you on the LIE people were trapped in their cars overnight.

And about 2' of snow fell on central north Long Island.

But apparently since you were lucky it was all hype.

[hack89]

39. Over a hundred thousand Rhode Islanders are sitting in the cold and dark with no power

it was not hype. I was one on the lucky ones - we got power back this afternoon.

[Mz Pip]

7. We're flying in to JFK tomorrow night

So far our flight has not been cancelled. Looks like JFK is still open so am keeping my fingers crossed it stays that way.

I was hoping to see some snow but not like this.

[winstars]

9. It looks like NY is only gonna get like 6-8 inches, JFK should be open...

The question is if your carrier has your plane good to where YOU ARE and not stashed somewhere else depending on where it is actually based out of. There are some DU'ers in the biz, perhaps they will add their knowledge here...

[Rhiannon12866]

14. It's still snowing here in NE NY

Just went out and shoveled another place for my dog to go out. The one I cleared earlier disappeared.

[Cha]

17. Brrr

Rhiannon

[Rhiannon12866]

18. It's not quite a cold as it's been, which was record-breaking, but the snow's

Been coming down since last night... Thank you!

[PotatoChip]

22. One of the SO's employees just called,

saying he may be late to work, or possibly not make it at all, due to the storm (it is shift work). The guy said that he has over 2 feet of snow at his place, and his road hasn't been plowed yet. He's not the type to miss work often, therefore it must be bad.

It's weird, because the employee lives only about 40 miles south and west of us, yet we've only got about 6 inches. The SO and I are in an area where 12 to 18 was predicted, but since this is the most northern tip of the storm, it's supposed to continue on through the morning and into the afternoon. Snow is still coming down now, but not all that bad. Mostly just wind.

We haven't even lost power which is really odd since we often lose it over the most minor of things here in the boonies.

I guess I'm up for the the day. The phone call woke me up, and I couldn't get back to sleep. Argh!

[orleans]

23. make a pot of coffee--just in case the power goes down

and try to get a little more sleep. tomorrow might be a long day.

[PotatoChip]

25. Done, and thanks.

In fact, I'm now just about coffee'd out already. Have that annoying 'tired and wired' kind of feeling, but it's ok if I don't get any more sleep... I've got the whole day ahead for that in my cozy, woodheated home and plenty of good reading material in case the power goes out. Plus, we won't be bothering w/cleanup until this is over. With the gusting winds, it'd be silly not to wait with all of the drifting snow.

I feel bad for others, but I'm actually kind of enjoying this since I don't have to go anywhere. Unfortunately, the SO had to go and fill in for the absent employee, but he will have a nice New England boiled ham dinner when he gets home, whether the power goes out or not. It's in the crockpot right now, but if the power goes out, I can still use my gas stove and oven.

I hope everyone else is doing alright though...

Thanks for the advice and concern. It's times like these when I really appreciate the feeling of community and kindness of other DUers!

[orleans]

38. around 8pm on saturday

how was the day? you doing okay?

[lunatica]

31. I really feel for everyone in the North East

[Katorama]

32. About 24-30 inches just north of Boston - still pretty windy, not too bad.

People are starting to wander out, roads aren't too bad.

[underpants]

36. God is not happy that Tom Brady lost

and neither am I