Monday, Jan 26th 2015
9PM
27°C
0AM
27°C
5-Day Forecast
'Worst snowstorm in history' shuts down the East Coast: Thirty five million hunker down as five states declare emergencies, National Guard is deployed and New Yorkers rush home before 11pm curfew
- Travel chaos across the country as massive snowstorm cancels more than 6,000 flights
- Uber suspends controversial surge pricing during snowstorm after criticism that it has exploited previous crises for profit
A state of emergency has been called across five states in the
Northeast as 60 million braced for the impact of the 'crippling and
potentially historic' storm Juno. New York, New Jersey. Connecticut,
Massachusetts and Rhode Island all put emergency procedures into place
on Monday afternoon as the snowstorm threatened to dump three feet of
snow across the region and beyond over Monday night and into Tuesday.
Accompanied by hurricane-strength winds, residents have been warned the
conditions could quickly become life-threatening and have warned people
to stay inside and to be braced for power blackouts and water shortages.
Roads will be shut off before midnight across the five states while
more than 6,000 flights have been cancelled. Tourists spent the day
stranded in major airports across the region, left, as stores quickly
sold out of essential goods in a frenzy of panic buying and people
struggled to make their way home on disrupted public transport routes
attempting to escape the brunt of the blizzard.
The 'worst snowstorm in history' shuts down the East Coast: Five states declare emergencies, the National Guard is deployed and New Yorkers rush home before up to three FEET of snow buries the city
- 36inches of snow expected across Northeast, with winds topping 55mph in New York City and 75mph on the coast
- New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island governors declared states of emergency
- National Guard is on standby in New York and 500 guardsmen have been deployed in Massachusetts
- Up to 100,000 people could lose power in Connecticut and could last a few days
- Officials were urging people to head home as soon as possible for their own safety leading to chaos on city transit
- New York subway system would close from 11pm on Monday along with Port Authority facilities
- NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said: 'This will be one of the largest blizzards in the history of New York City. People must be prepared. This is not business as usual'
- Predictions say visibility on roads will be zero Monday night as 2-4 inches of snow fall per hour
- More than 3,800 flights canceled on Monday, with JFK, LaGuardia and Newark airports virtually closed this evening
- The National Weather Service has issued a severe weather warning which affects 60 million people
Five
states declared a state of emergency on Monday as the Northeast braced
for a 'crippling and potentially historic' storm that could bury
communities from northern New Jersey to southern Maine in up to 3 feet
of snow and batter areas with hurricane-strength winds.
New
York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island governors
were taking no chances as winter storm Juno was set to dump snow at the
rate of several inches per hour along with bringing winds up 80mph in
some regions and creating whiteout conditions that were being described
as 'life-threatening', by the National Weather Service.
The
storm will affect a 250-mile stretch, including New York City,
Philadelphia and Boston, affecting close to 60 million people across
seven states. Widespread coastal flooding was expected to affect up to
11 million people starting on Monday afternoon.
Airlines
were shutting down operations along the East Coast - with more than
6,000 flights canceled over the next two days. Amtrak was warning about
delays and cancellations along with reduced and sometimes no services on
local mass transit networks.
On
Monday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Governor Chris
Christie declared states of emergencies. Governor Christie said: 'This
is a different kind of storm than we've had before.'
New
York Mayor Bill de Blasio added: 'This will be one of the largest
blizzards in the history of New York City. People must be prepared. This
is not business as usual... Prepare for something worse than we have
seen before.'
He
urged people to get off the streets as quickly as possible in the next
few hours, adding: 'This is going to hit very hard and very fast.' As
of Monday afternoon, a quarter of an inch of snow was coming down every
ten minutes, according to weather experts.
Scroll down for videos
New York's usually busy center of
Times Square was sparsely populated on Monday as commuters hurried home
amid a complete shutdown in the city due to the massive storm
The snowfall began in earnest on
Monday afternoon in New York City as authorities urged New Yorkers to
get home and take shelter
Brutal conditions: A woman covers her face from heavy falling snow as she makes her way through Times Square in New York City
People wait for their train platform
to be announced at Penn Station in New York as a major snowstorm set in.
Travel officials said that they would be running a schedule like
Thanksgiving Eve to get everyone home before the worst of the snow hit
The snow flurries were increasing in
New York City on Monday with officials urging people to stock up on food
and water and head home early
Heavy surf pounds the shoreline on
Monday where a boardwalk once stood before it was damaged by Hurricane
Sandy in 2012. Coastal areas were bracing for high waves and
hurricane-strength winds heading into tonight
Snow predictions as of Monday
afternoon revealed that several feet was going to blanket the Northeast
along with high winds which would create 'life-threatening' whiteout
conditions, according to the National Weather Service
Here it comes! New York was bracing
for a severe snowstorm which was set to begin around noon on Monday and
could drop up to two feet on the city and bring hurricane-strength
winds. A state of emergency was announced by Governor Cuomo today
Snow falls
on pedestrians in New York City as people rushed to get home ahead of
'life-threatening' weather conditions that were setting in
New Yorkers walk through the snowfall
as it began to get heavy on Monday as Mayor Bill de Blasio warned
residents to get off the streets
New Yorkers were piling their grocery carts high on Monday afternoon as they headed home to bunker down ahead of this storm
A tractor-trailer jack-knifed early
on Monday morning in Massachusetts as drivers were warned to avoid long
journeys where possible in the 'life-threatening' blizzard conditions
Winter storm Juno can be seen
blanketing the Northeast of the U.S. in a satellite image released on
Monday. Up to three feet of snow was expected across the region
New Yorkers
were taking no chances and stocking up on supplies for the impending
winter storm Juno due to hit the city from this afternoon and blanket
the region in snow overnight
After
11pm tonight, no cars other than emergency vehicles would be allowed on
streets in the state of New York - and the Mayor de Blasio emphasized
that 'a food delivery bicycle is not an emergency vehicle'.
The
snow storm was expected to kick in with force at noon on Monday in New
York City and early afternoon in New England with forecasters warning
people to be where they wanted to be for 5pm on Monday to ride out the
storm.
Winds
topping 55 miles per hour (88 kph) were predicted to lash New York City
and its suburbs, raising the potential for power outages caused by tree
limbs falling on overhead utility lines.
On
Monday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo warned that residents should not
take the snowstorm lightly, adding: 'The snow combined with the wind
makes it dangerous and difficult conditions'
New
York City was likely to see 'thundersnow' - when snow collides with the
dry air, resulting in lightning strikes and rolling thunder.
On
Monday, Governor of Connecticut Dannel Malloy issued a statewide travel
ban from 9pm this evening where 12-18 inches of snow was expected and
closed schools on Tuesday.
NJ
Governor Christie urged people to stay off the roads unless in absolute
necessity and, in particular, when the worst conditions hit at 9pm on
Monday.
The
National Weather Service said roads throughout the Mid-Atlantic would
be slippery and visibilities could be reduced to a quarter-mile at
times.
Chaos
engulfed the city as shoppers, with recent memories of Hurricane Sandy
in October 2012, formed long lines and emptied grocery store shelves in
preparation.
There
would be zero visibility on roads overnight on Monday, forecasters
warned, with drivers urged to take the utmost care and avoid journeys
where possible.
Governor Cuomo said on Monday that the subway would run until 7-8pm as normal, then be on a reduced service.
At 11pm tonight, the MTA subway system would shut down along with Port Authority facilities.
As of early on Monday afternoon, The Long Island Rail Road and Metro North were set to close at 11pm.
People were reporting packed out
trains on the Long Island Rail Road where trains would be running a
reduced service later on Monday night
People walk along a Manhattan street
in heavy snow as the city braced for a forecast 24 inches of snow
overnight on Monday, leaving the city with treacherous conditions. Stay
home, has been the strongly-worded advice from the city's mayor
Karen Barker, center right, and her
daughter, Grace Barker, 13, wait in line to see if they will be able to
board a rescheduled flight to Texas at LaGuardia Airport in New York
Snow removal equipment sits on the
tarmac at Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts ahead of a major winter
storm predicted to hit the area later in the day
Whiteout: The view from Freedom Tower in New York City on Monday afternoon as heavy snow swirls battered in the Big Apple
A plow travels down a city street
during heavy snow in the financial district of Manhattan - the streets
were quiet as most offices allowed employees to go home early for their
own safety
Williamsburg Bridge and the Manhattan
skyline were barely visible on Monday afternoon from Brooklyn as the
whiteout conditions set in from winter snowstorm Juno
A man eats lunch in the United Nations building cafeteria as the snow storm ramped up on Monday afternoon in New York City
Metro-North will run an early getaway schedule as it does on Thanksgiving Eve, according to travel authorities.
Tractor-trailer bans were being issued on major roads in New York from 4pm, Governor Cuomo said.
Some
2,400 sanitation workers were planned to work back-to-back in 12 hours
shifts, using 750 snow plows and tons of salt for the massive cleanup on
about 6,000 miles of city streets - the equivalent of New York to LA
and back again.
Most
non-essential state employees were being sent home at 3pm on Monday in
affected areas as private offices emptied out, with the majority of
companies taking the severe weather warnings seriously.
All Broadway performances were canceled on Monday night in New York City.
Monday
night home games were postponed for the New York Knicks and Brooklyn
Nets while comedian Louis C.K. nixed his final show set for Tuesday at
Madison Square Garden.
The
UN headquarters gave itself a day off on Tuesday and schools across the
East Coast dismissed students early on Monday and canceled classes for
Tuesday, with those in Boston staying closed until Thursday.
States of emergency have been declared
in five states as authorities warned people to get off the streets
ahead of the massive storm hitting the Northeast
Commuters in New York were being urged
to head home early as mass transit planned to run on reduced schedules
during the worst of the storm on Monday night
In
New York City, the Greater New York Taxi Association offered free cab
service for emergency responders trying to get to work, and disabled and
elderly residents who become stranded.
Government
officials began to activate emergency centers on Sunday as professional
sports teams, schools and utilities hastily revised their schedules and
made preparations.
New York schools were open on Monday but expected to be closed on Tuesday, according to the mayor.
The
Super Bowl-bound New England Patriots expected to be out of town by the
time the storm arrives in Boston. The team plans to leave Logan Airport
at 12.30pm on Monday for Phoenix, Arizona. where the temperature will
reach the high 60s.
In
Massachusetts, Governor Charlie Baker warned residents to prepare for
roads that are 'very hard, if not impossible, to navigate,' power
outages and possibly even a lack of public transportation.
Cape
Cod was expected to see up to three feet of snow with all weather
models showing at least two feet of snow across Hartford, Connecticut,
Providence, Rhode Island, and Boston along with 50mph winds which will
make travel treacherous.
The Massachusetts governor declared a
state of emergency and warned people to stay off the roads to avoid
accidents, as seen here on Monday in Southborough
Workers de-ice a plane during a light
snow on the runway at LaGuardia Airport in New York early on Monday.
Airlines cancelled thousands of flights into and out of East Coast
airports
People wrap up warm for a chilly walk
in Central Park in Manhattan, New York ahead of the approaching blizzard
on Monday afternoon
A plow truck clears snow off South
Church Street, in Hazleton, Pennsylvania on Monday. The area received
another three-inches of snow overnight
Chaos:
Pictured left, traffic jams were backing up on Central Parkway, Queens
near New York's La Guardia airport while thousands of travelers were
stranded (picture at La Guardia on Monday) after airlines canceled more
than 5,000 flights
A cyclist
navigates between a New York Dept. of Sanitation truck with a snow plow
attached, and cars on New York's Sixth Avenue (left). Street cleaner
Francisco Mathurine clears snow from the steps in Times Square on Monday
Several occupants of a car had to cut
free around 6am on Monday morning following a collision with a snow plow
in Haverford Township, Pennsylvania. Their injuries were unknown
Heavy snow was already blanketing
parts of Pennsylvania as the Northeast of the country got ready for a
severe snowstorm on Monday and hurricane-strength winds
Stockpiling:
Shelves were emptied of produce in New York City on Monday as queues at
the grocery stores grew to hundreds of people
A Massachusetts street is seen already
coated with several inches of snow on Monday morning. Boston is
expected to get 18 to 24 inches of snow, with up to 2 feet or more west
of the city
Widespread power outages were expected and could last days, authorities across New England warned.
An
early accident between a car and a snow plow was reported on Monday
morning in Haverford Township, Pennsylvania, according to ABC.
A
tractor-trailer jackknifed, and a beer truck a;so crashed into the
median on Interstate 81 near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, during the
morning commute. No injuries were reported.
Some
of the occupants of the car were pinned inside and had to be cut free
after the vehicle hit the snow plow's wheel around 6.15am. Their
injuries were unknown at this time.
The
storm was blasting its way up the Atlantic coast and would dump huge
quantities of snow from Washington, D.C., to Maine, with New York City
and the surrounding areas hardest-hit.
At
the same time, New York City was set to face hurricane-strength winds
topping 55mph. The Weather Channel predicted that gusts could reach up
to 75mph in Montauk, Long Island.
New
York Governor Cuomo said: 'I urge residents to put safety first and
plan ahead to protect themselves and others throughout the duration of
this snowstorm.'
Many
New Yorkers reacted to the abysmal weather predictions - which could
bring the worst storm since records began in 1872 - by cleaning out
their local grocery stores.
Shoppers
were pictured lining up around the block in Manhattan just to get
inside so they could grab hold of rapidly-diminishing supplies.
The New York City-area airports were set to be especially hard-hit by the weather.
One resident on the coast in New
England was taking no chances and boarding up the windows of his home
ahead of the predicted historic nor'easter on Monday
Snow was falling gently in Brooklyn,
New York on Monday morning as the city braced for much heavier fall
around lunchtime and into the night
Deserted: An abnormally quiet Newark
Airport in New Jersey on Monday morning as hundreds of arriving and
departing flights had already been canceled
According to the FlightAware monitoring
service, more than 1,800 services have been canceled on Monday, with
LaGuardia, Newark Liberty and JFK airports the worst affected.
FlightAware
said more than 40 per cent of all inbound flights to those three hubs
were cancelled tomorrow, with a third of departures from Newark and La
Guardia shut down. Flights leaving JFK would be cut by around 20 per
cent.
New
Jersey and New England were under severe weather warnings with
authorities telling residents to avoid making long journeys in
life-threatening conditions.
The National Weather Service in Boston said that 'travel may become impossible'.
The storm was expected to bring winds of 65mph in places. Some 57million people are believed to be in the path of the storm.
New
York City's current record for snowfall is 26.9inches in February 2006.
The most extreme predictions for the coming storm exceed that by almost
ten inches.
'This
could be a storm the likes of which we have never seen before,' New
York City Mayor Bill de Blasio at a news conference Sunday.
'Don't underestimate this storm. Prepare for the worst,' he said as he urged residents to plan to leave work early Monday.
Boston
is expected to get 18 to 24 inches of snow, with up to 2 feet or more
west of the city, and Philadelphia could see up to a foot, the weather
service said.
The Washington area expected only a couple of inches, with steadily increasing amounts as the storm heads north.
'We
do anticipate very heavy snowfall totals,' said Bob Oravec, lead
forecaster with the weather service in College Park, Maryland.
'In
addition to heavy snow, with blizzard warnings, there's a big threat of
high, damaging winds, and that will be increasing Monday into Tuesday. A
lot of blowing, drifting and such.'
Wind gusts of 75 mph or more are possible for coastal areas of Massachusetts, and up to 50 mph further inland, Oravec said.
Towns
along New Jersey’s coast were expected to be the hardest hit by the
storm, and Jersey shore communities were watching out for flooding.
The storm was expected to cause moderate flooding in oceanfront communities between midnight and 1am on Tuesday.
Back
bay areas tend to flood several hours after the oceanfront high tide.
The weather service says some property damage could occur, and tides and
wave action will cause severe beach erosion.
Parts
of the shore that were hit hard by Superstorm Sandy now have man-made
dunes, rocks or metal walls. But other cities still have not agreed to
protective dunes, and some are fighting the state’s plans for them in
court.
The
weekend storm which brought snow and slush to the Northeast - the first
real snow of the season for many areas - was just a warm up. The storm
promised treacherous travel by both land and air along the busy
northeast corridor.
Preparations
large and small were in effect in New York City. A Manhattan Home
Depot store sold about twice as many shovels over the weekend as it
normally does.
Transit
officials hoping to keep the subways running smoothly planned to use
modified subway cars loaded with de-icing fluid to spray the third rail
that powers trains.
Farther
north, a blizzard watch is in effect for Boston from Monday night
through early Wednesday. Wind gusts of 60 mph or more are possible on
Cape Cod, forecasters said.
Wyatt
Baars, manager of the Charlestown Ace Hardware in Boston, sold out of
his bags of ice-melting pellets but said a New Hampshire distributor was
delivering more.
'Everybody
is preparing for the storm,' he said. 'When we have something this big
on the horizon, everybody comes in for the ice melt, snow shovels, snow
brooms.'
Snow
plow driver Al Laplant expected to be out clearing roads of Simsbury,
Connecticut from Monday, just as he has been doing for more than two
decades.
'We'll
be out there until the storm's over and then at least three hours after
cleaning up,' he said as he attended a home show in Hartford. 'We'll be
out there through the whole storm.'
But even for a plow driver, the snow is no cake walk.
'It's
kind of exhilarating,' he said. 'But at the same time, I've been doing
it for 27 years, so I'm kind of tired of it myself.'
A worker in the Northeast stands on
top of a huge stockpile of salt as authorities were taking no chances
with forecasts of a severe storm
HOW NYC HAS BEEN BURIED IN SNOW AGAIN AND AGAIN - BUT THE COMING STORM COULD BE THE BIGGEST YET
In more than a hundred years of record-keeping, snowfall in New York City has only cleared the 20-inch mark a handful of times.
However,
the 36inches predicted in the storm now approaching the city would
dwarf even the current record-holder. Below are the top five recorded
snowfall figures for a single storm:
1. February 11-12, 2006: 26.9inches
2. December 26-27, 1947: 25.8inches
3. March 12-14, 1888: 21.0inches
4. February 25.26, 2010: 20.9inches
5. January 7-8, 1996: 20.2inches
Record-holder:
A storm in 2006 which dropped almost 27inches of snow in New York City
is the current record-holder. Above, a man walks his two golden
retrievers through the blizzard
Hard clean-up: The fourth-worst snowstorm, in 2006, is pictured above, with workers using snow blowers to clean up Park Avenue
The
older storms, from 1888 and 1947, were deadly for many and are
remembered as disasters in the city, while later storms made less of a
dent because of modern technology and greater preparedness.
The
1888 blast coated the boroughs, and caused chaos by disrupting power
lines and other utilities, which were later moved underground as a
response.
In
1947, the storm came by surprise as it approached from the sea, where
there was little infrastructure for weather warnings. Snow was piled up
and dumped in the sewers or rivers from Manhattan, but districts further
from water struggled for days with the huge pileups.
Storms
in the 1990s and 2000s still caused widespread chaos but were handled
more deftly. The 2010 storm canceled a third of all flights from New
York City. Costs associated with cleaning up after the 2006 storm
reportedly hit the tens of millions.
Blizzards past: The above image shows Grand Central Depot in 1888, when devastating snows ravaged the city
Striking
again: 25.8inches of snow fell on Central Park in 1947, which came as a
surprise because it approached from over the sea
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário