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[h=4]Boston, coast take brunt of mighty Northeast storm[/h]"Historic" winter storm set to batter 7 states, impacting 40 million
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More than 50 million people hunkered down as a mighty winter storm pounded down on cities in the Northeast forcing statewide road travel bans. Thousands of people were left stranded as more than 7,000 flights were cancelled. VPC
Snow buries bikes at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., on Tuesday, Jan. 27.(Photo: Maddie Meyer, Getty Images)
Boston was hammered with withering, blizzard conditions and the entire island of Nantucket lost power for hours Tuesday as a mighty winter storm blasted parts of New England but dealt only a glancing blow to shuttered New York City.
More than 50 million people were hunkered down in the angry storm's path. Thousands of flights were canceled, road travel was banned in several states and schools were closed for millions of kids.
The storm was forecast to continue roaring through much of the region into Wednesday, although forecasters downgraded the potential impact in some areas. The National Weather Service said the storm tracked 50 to 75 miles further east than expected — a win for New York.
That didn't save Boston, which already had almost 21 inches of snow Tuesday afternoon, making it the eighth biggest snowstorm on record for the city. The total could exceed 2 feet before the storm wraps up, forecasters said. Temperatures struggled to reach 15 degrees, with a wind chill of minus 7. Gusts of up to 50 mph added to the city's weather woes.
Some areas south and west of Boston could see 3 feet of snow by early Wednesday, AccuWeather meteorologist Tyler Roys told USA TODAY. Worcester had 26 inches on the ground, making this the city's third biggest snowstorm on record.
"It's a blizzard," Roys said. "And they will be seeing a whole lot of snow."
It was still too early to put a price tag on damage losses from the storm, said two insurance firms, Munich Re and Aon Benfield.
On Nantucket, Mass., ice buildup on a substation was blamed for an outage that left the 10,000-plus residents without power. Cellphone service issues exacerbated the problem.
Monique Currie, trying to get updates from Colorado, operates the Cliffside Beach Club hotel on Nantucket in the summer and had been unable to contact family and friends in the East.
"I'm waiting for them to text me back," Currie said. "I'm trying to see if they're still alive, and what's going on, and if the beach still exists, and ... if we're underwater or not."
Roys said the storm presented "a case of haves and have nots. The worst of it is in the coastal areas. Other places have been relatively spared."
Coastal areas of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Long Island, N.Y., were facing blizzard conditions — heavy snow with consistent wind gusts in excess of 35 mph. Three coastal towns in Massachusetts evacuated residents early Tuesday morning, fleeing ocean floodwaters that rushed in with high tide. The evacuations of Marshfield, Scituate and Hull were a precaution, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency Director Kurt Schwartz said.
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SHOTLIST:STATE OF NEW YORK HANDOUT - AP CLIENTS ONLYNew York - January 27, 20151. SOUNDBITE (English): Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-New York:"The storm, in general, I think it's fair to say, was less destructive than predicted, so far, but there were varianc AP
Philadelphia, which on Monday morning appeared to be vulnerable to a major storm, was hit with just a few inches. A blizzard warning was canceled for New York City and New Jersey.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio opened city streets to traffic Tuesday morning, and the subway system was running on a light, weekend schedule. The city had feared a blast of 20 inches of snow or more; Central Park had about 8 inches Tuesday morning.
"There is no question how serious this (storm) was expected to be," de Blasio said in explaining the extraordinary precautions taken by the city. "The cleanup is going well, but it's going to take today and into tomorrow."
Driving bans ordered across most of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, expected to last all day Tuesday at least, were mostly dropped.
A sheepish National Weather Service office in New York posted this on its Facebook page: "The science of forecasting storms, while continually improving, still can be subject to error, especially if we're on the edge of the heavy precipitation shield. Efforts, including research, are already underway to more easily communicate that forecast uncertainty."
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Hyperlapse video shows the streets of New York City as the blizzard rolls in. VPC
Not everyone was feeling fortunate, however.
"We just tried to let our 90- and 75-pound dogs out," said Abigail Zavod of Acton, Mass., where more than 20 inches had fallen before noon. "The snow was so deep they couldn't stand in it."
Framingham, Mass., had 30 inches of snow. Parts of Long Island had more than 28 inches before noon Tuesday. And there was plenty of storm left to go.
"A crippling and historic blizzard will continue to impact central and eastern New England into tonight," the weather service warned.
At least an additional foot of snow was forecast to fall across most of eastern Massachusetts, southeastern New Hampshire, and most of Maine, according to The Weather Channel.
Sustained winds of 20 to 40 mph with gusts up to 55 mph are howling across much of eastern New England. Even higher winds are expected in eastern Massachusetts, including Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, where gusts of 70-plus mph had been reported.
USA TODAY
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Nearly 8,000 flights from coast-to-coast were had already been canceled until Thursday by the blizzard, dubbed Winter Storm Juno by The Weather Channel and Blizzard '15 by several media outlets.
Boston's Logan International Airport did not expect flights to resume until late Wednesday. Amtrak service was suspended between New York and Boston for Tuesday, while other regional routes were operating on reduced schedules.
USA TODAY
Northeast snowstorm forces cancellation of sporting events
The storm's impacts could last long after it heads offshore: Power outages, snow-packed roads and school closures may last for days after the blizzard, AccuWeather meteorologist Brian Lada said.
Coastal New England should continue to see some of the worst impacts from the storm's pounding surf and near-hurricane force winds, including severe beach erosion and flooding of vulnerable shore roads and homes: "This storm has enough intensity that it could cause new inlets to be formed along barrier beaches," the National Weather Service in Boston warned.
Contributing: Kevin McCoy in New York; Gary Strauss in McLean, Va.; G. Jeffrey MacDonald in Boston; William M. Welch in Los Angeles.
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Cities and towns in the northeastern parts of the U.S. are preparing for blizzard-like conditions in what could be a record-breaking amount of snowfall. VPC
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