A sprawling, lumbering winter storm walloped the eastern US on Monday, shutting down coronavirus vaccination sites, closing schools and halting transit as snow piled up from the Appalachians to New England, with the heaviest accumulations yet to come in many places.
With snow falling since Sunday evening, New York City and northern New Jersey were bracing for as much as 22in and parts of New England for a foot or more. The National Weather Service (NWS) warned that high winds and snowfall could persist into Tuesday in New York and Wednesday in New England.
“We’re looking at a long two days here,” the New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, said at a virtual news conference, noting that road conditions were already “seriously dangerous” at midday.
Cuomo said 44 counties had declared emergencies.
There were more than 360 car crashes in Virginia at the weekend, including one that sent four firefighters to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after their truck overturned on snow-covered roads in Henrico county, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
Across the north-east, many coronavirus vaccination sites were closed on Monday.
The storm disrupted the second phase of Massachusetts’ vaccine rollout as a Boston site that was supposed to open for residents aged 75 and over did not. Some other mass vaccination sites were open. The state was expected to get 12in to 18in of heavy, wet snow and winds of up to 55mph along the coast, Governor Charlie Baker said.
“We’re used to dealing with snow this time of year but it’s important for folks to take this one seriously due to the heavy snowfall, the high winds and the speed with which this snow is going to fall when it starts to come down,” the governor told reporters.
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‘Blinding snow’ storm batters New York City and US north-east– video
The Connecticut governor, Ned Lamont, said most vaccinations scheduled in his state for Monday were being postponed, but noted that the vaccine can be kept, refrigerated, for days.
In a school year when many students are already learning from home, in-person classes were canceled in many places.
“I’d like to think there is still some virtual learning going on, with a little bit of time for sledding along the way,” quipped Lamont.
New Jersey had scattered power outages by late morning, affecting about 1,500 homes and businesses, but Governor Phil Murphy warned that high winds were likely to knock out electricity to more people heading into Tuesday.
Hundreds of flights and many trains were canceled, and aboveground New York City subway service was due to stop at 2pm.
By the afternoon, New York’s John F Kennedy airport cancelled all flights.
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❄ #WinterStormOrlena Update:
Airline carriers at #JFK have cancelled all commercial flights for today. Please contact your airline for further information about rebooking. pic.twitter.com/QC9TVXtnXA
February 1, 2021
Transportation officials said on Twitter 81% of flights were canceled at New York’s LaGuardia airport and 75% at Newark Liberty airport.
Amtrak canceled all Acela service between Boston and Washington and Pennsylvanian service between New York and Pittsburgh. All New Jersey Transit trains and buses were suspended, except for the Atlantic City Rail Line.
Other regional railroads including Pennsylvania’s Northeast Regional, Keystone Service and Empire Service were operating on limited or modified schedules. New York Waterway ferries were suspended.
In recent days, a storm system blanketed parts of the midwest, with some areas getting the most snow in several years. Ohio and Washington DC also got snow.
In Pennsylvania, authorities said a 67-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s disease who reportedly wandered away from her home was found dead of hypothermia on an Allentown street on Monday morning.
About 60 miles north in Plains Township, a shooting that followed an argument over snow removal killed a married couple, and the suspect was later found dead at his nearby home of a wound believed to have been self-inflicted, officials in Luzerne county said.
A preliminary investigation indicated the people involved had a long-running conflict, but “this morning, the dispute was exacerbated by a disagreement over snow disposal,” the district attorney Stefanie Salavantis said.
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