A car remains buried in the front lawn of a home on Point Grove Road in Southwick after a February 2014 snowstorm. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — This morning’s commute was normal for much of the Northeast as officials continued to urge residents to prepare for a “crippling and potentially historic” storm that could bury communities from northern New Jersey to southern Maine in up to 2 feet of snow starting later in the day.
The National Weather Service said the nor’easter would bring heavy snow, powerful winds and widespread coastal flooding through tomorrow. A blizzard warning was issued for a 250-mile stretch of the Northeast, including New York and Boston.
A Shaker Road resident in Westfield uses a roof rake to remove snow from a February 2014 storm. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
Officials cautioned residents to not be misled by a relatively smooth morning commute. They warned that getting home could be difficult and asked residents to avoid any unnecessary travel.
The morning commute was delayed today for drivers on a section of Interstate 81 near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A tractor-trailer jackknifed, and a truck hauling beer crashed into the median. No injuries were reported.
Some schools were planning to close early or not open at all today in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Enfield, Connecticut.
“We are monitoring the storm and we will be prepared,” said Westfield Schools Superintendent Dr. Suzanne Scallion.
Government officials began to activate emergency centers yesterday as professional sports teams, schools and utilities hastily revised their schedules and made preparations.
Westfield Emergency Management Director Jim Wiggs said that preparations are coming along and that he has been in conversation with other city officials and is slated to speak with the city’s Public Health Department and Westfield Gas and Electric this afternoon.
“This is another day in New England for us. All the teams know what they need to do,” said Wiggs this morning. “I told all of the department leads that Emergency Management is ready to roll into action if we have power outages.”
“If we have power outages and there are public safety concerns, we need to have a plan in place (with Public Health and WG&E) to help our fellow citizens in need,” said Wiggs.
Wiggs advises residents to stock up enough food to potentially last them for several days and to make sure their vehicles have full gas tanks in the event that they must travel somewhere when the roads are passable.
“Make sure you’ve got gasoline for their snow blower, do a walk around your house and make sure your vents are clear,” he said. “That’s very important to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.”
“Make sure you have an escape route out of your house and to go out periodically and shovel out your front door,” Wiggs said. “In the event that you need to get out or emergency personnel need to get in, there is an egress route for them to do so.”
Making sure your cellphone is fully charged and having fresh batteries for your radio and flashlights are also important tips.
Wiggs also advises to turn off the Wi-Fi in your home in the event of a power outage to conserve the battery life for your phone and to use your phone sparingly in the event of a power outage.
“Pay attention to news broadcasts and if you have a neighbors, check on them,” he said. “There needs to be a sense of community and helping one another.”
Westfield Mayor Daniel M. Knapik concurred with Wiggs that the city will be ready.
“We’ve been through this before,” he said. “As this will be a long duration storm, I would ask that the public be patient with cleanup efforts, because at some point we will need to pull the crews off the roads to rest.”
Knapik advised residents to stay off the roads for their own safety and to abide by the city’s parking ban.
“By doing this it will speed up the effort to return to normal operations,” he said.
“This could be a storm the likes of which we have never seen before,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference in a Manhattan sanitation garage where workers were preparing plows and salt for the massive cleanup on about 6,000 miles of city roadways.
Massachusetts Gov. 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.
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 today into tomorrow. A lot of blowing, drifting and such.”
President Barack Obama, who is traveling in India, has been briefed on the storm, spokesman Josh Earnest said today. White House officials also have been in touch with officials from states “up and down the Eastern seaboard” that are in the storm’s path, Earnest said.
Wind gusts of 75 mph or more are possible for coastal areas of Massachusetts, and up to 50 mph further inland, Oravec said.
Airlines canceled or delayed more than 4,000 flights into and out of East Coast airports. Boston’s Logan International Airport said there would be no flights after 7 p.m. today, and did not expect to resume flights until late Wednesday. Most major airlines are allowing customers whose flights are canceled in the next few days to book new flights without paying a penalty.
A storm system driving out of the Midwest brought several inches of snow to Ohio yesterdaay. A new low pressure system was expected to form off the Carolina coast and ultimately spread from the nation’s capital to Maine for a “crippling and potentially historic blizzard,” the weather service said.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged commuters to stay home on Monday and warned that mass transit and roadways could be closed before the evening rush hour, even major highways such as the New York Thruway, Interstate 84 and the Long Island Expressway.
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.
The New York Rangers decided to practice this afternoon at the Islanders’ home arena on Long Island instead of at their own training facility just outside New York City. They’ll stay overnight on Long Island for Tuesday’s game against their rival — if it’s still held.
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 12:30 p.m. Monday for Phoenix, where the temperature will reach the high 60s.
Westfield News writer Peter Francis and Associated Press writers Pat Eaton-Robb in Hartford, Connecticut; Bruce Shipkowski in Trenton, New Jersey; Deepti Hajela in New York; Albert Stumm in Philadelphia; and Marcy Gordon in Washington contributed to this report.
