*A Big Snow*

[AGBF]

This evening it took me 3 and 1/2 hours to "drive" around 25 miles...a distance I usually cover in half an hour! I went to take a final exam that never happened. Then it took 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours more to drive home! Much more snow is expected tomorrow-in fact supposedly it will be a blizzard, complete with high winds. To me that means: loss of electricity, heat, and the Internet! So I''ll see you when it''s over!

Deb

 

[AGBF]

From "The New York Times"

December 6, 2003
Storm Blankets Eastern States in Ice and Snow
By JAMES BARRON

The first major snowstorm of the season — a powerful one-two punch that pummeled the East Coast and promised another wallop of snow and freezing temperatures — snarled traffic yesterday and left travelers stranded at airports.

The storm covered Central Park with eight inches of snow in 10 hours yesterday, less than it left behind elsewhere as it crawled up the East Coast. The National Weather Service reported 10 inches in parts of Maryland.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said that snow removal would cost $1 million per inch, but that the Sanitation Department was standing by with 212,000 tons of salt.

"We are prepared," Mr. Bloomberg said after 300 snowplows had been sent out, the first of 1,400 that New York City had in waiting. Sanitation workers had been ordered to work 12-hour shifts to clear as many of the city's 6,000 miles of roadways as they could, officials said at a news conference at a Sanitation Department garage in Maspeth, Queens.

In addition, the city's alternate-side parking regulations were canceled for today because of the snow. They will be suspended on Monday for a religious holiday.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the area's three major airports, said dozens of flights were canceled or delayed. A Port Authority spokesman said the airports — La Guardia, Kennedy and Newark Liberty — remained open. But there was confusion as passengers scrambled to find other flights or hotels where they could spend the night.

As the snow continued through the afternoon, building superintendents in Manhattan began shoveling sidewalks and muttering about another snowy winter, and schools sent students home early.

Even those who advise people on getting around had problems: Some remote-control television cameras used during on-the-air traffic reports sent back translucent images. Their lenses were covered by the thick, wet snow.

Some people worried that the storm was a sign that winter would go on forever. But this was no winter storm. Winter, after all, does not begin for 15 days. And the temptation was to say that yesterday was a dry run, except that it was wet. Or that yesterday was a warm-up act, except, of course, that it was cold — the day's low temperature was 26 degrees in Central Park at 3:59 p.m. So words like prelude or appetizer came to mind as forecasters talked about a weekend of even more snow.

The snowstorm resulted in numerous accidents, some of them fatal, The Associated Press reported. In Pennsylvania, a school bus lost control on a slippery road and crashed into a van, killing the van's 74-year-old driver. None of the three dozen children on the bus was injured. Two people were killed in Virginia — one man died Thursday in an accident on a slick road, and yesterday another man was killed when his pickup ran off a snow-covered road, struck a tree and overturned.

Motorists headed home early, choking roads as the storm gained strength. One driver on the New Jersey Turnpike said it took four hours to go from the Lincoln Tunnel to Exit 11. On the Northern State Parkway on Long Island, drivers inched past cars that had slid off the icy pavement or slammed into other cars. A stretch of Interstate 95 in Connecticut was closed near Old Lyme, The Associated Press reported, after several accidents between Exits 70 and 71. At about 8:40 p.m. yesterday, a seven-car pileup on the Brooklyn Bridge led to the closing of westbound lanes.

Some travelers faced headaches that may not have been caused by the snow. One of the elevated trains that runs between the terminals at Newark Airport broke down near the station where passengers can transfer to commuter trains. Port Authority police officers pried open the doors of the disabled train and evacuated 100 people. A spokeswoman for Metro-North said that the railroad would run on a Sunday schedule today to keep the oldest trains out of service. That meant there would be 68 fewer trains than usual, the spokeswoman said.

In Manhattan, someone fell on the stairs of the West 18th Street subway station on the Seventh Avenue line and was critically injured, the authorities said. It was not immediately clear whether the person was a man or a woman. Officials said he or she apparently had a seizure, fell and suffered a head injury. The person was pronounced dead at St. Vincent's Manhattan Hospital, the police said.

The snow was the product of warm air riding over the cold air hovering over the East Coast, said Jonathan Porter of Penn State Meteorology in State College, Pa. "This is a typical setup, where you have cold high pressure to the north and disturbances moving up the East Coast," he said. "It's a classic recipe for good snow in the big cities." And the reason for predictions for more snow today? A second low-pressure system was heading toward New York from the Middle West, he said.

Lital Weiss, 20, a sergeant in the Israeli Army who was in Midtown visiting with her family, saw something she had never seen before: snow falling. She said she had seen snow on the ground near the border between Israel and Lebanon. Her quick three-word description: "Cool. Nice. Cold."

The storm sent some people to hardware stores for snow shovels and salt, to supermarkets for food and to clothing stores for parkas and gloves. "I couldn't keep up with the customers," said Linda Cronquist, who runs a children's consignment shop in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.

But some people had prepared for the storm. Gerard Martin, who lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, stocked up on groceries on Thursday. Yesterday, Mr. Martin, 75, was the second person on his block in Windsor Terrace to start shoveling, even though the snow was still falling. "It's easier to shovel two inches rather than six inches," he said. He should know: He is a retired Sanitation Department employee.

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company | Home | Privacy Policy | Search | Corrections | Help |

 

[DancinGirl]

I am in the seacoast area of NH....and battening down the hatches (so to speak) getting ready for the storm to hit us! Already did the grocery store run!

BRING IT ON!!!

 

[AGBF]

I know the seacoast of New Hampshire! It's not long, but it's fun. The water is *COLD*, too! (And that's in the *summer*!!) We discovered the pleasures of the area because we needed to break out trip to annual trip to Maine somewhere. We soon found ourselves a place we *had* to stop every year .

 

[Kamuelamom]

Sigh.

Please continue to share your snow stories. And I'll blow some warm Hawaiian air your way. I guess the grass is always greener. You guys probably want sun and warmth right about now, and I want to make snowmen and angels in the snow!!

Whatever you do, please be safe. AGBF, I guess I'll see you when you begin to thaw.

 

[Kamuelamom]

AGBF, how much did you actually get this weekend?

 

[winyan]

We got between 8" - 12" here in NW NJ. Actually the higher elevations got less, or else it was so windswept it was hard to tell how much was actually on the ground.


However, it didn't stop me from skiing the past 3 days!!! %^)




win

 

[fire&ice]

----------------
On 12/9/2003 9:03:31 PM winyan wrote:


However, it didn't stop me from skiing the past 3 days!!! %^)


win
----------------

Always a plus side!

I do hope that this is not a precurser to last year. We had a slight dusting here. Last year either snow or worse ice fell just about every other week. We are not prepared for it here in VA. It sure is a novelty the first time; but, it got old real quick.

Has the snow started to melt up there?

 

[AGBF]

----------------
On 12/10/2003 10:39:12 AM fire&ice wrote:

----------------

I do hope that this is not a precurser to last year. We had a slight dusting here. Last year either snow or worse ice fell just about every other week. We are not prepared for it here in VA. It sure is a novelty the first time; but, it got old real quick.


Has the snow started to melt up there?

----------------

I heard (but did not read) that we got 12", a record for this early in the year. It didn't feel like that much, however. It looked to me, like only around 6". I was disappointed after the snow ended to see we weren't really waist deep!

I loved the snow last year. (Not that I wish it on you in Virginia, f&i. Virginia shouldn't have too much snow.)

Unfortunately, the snow has melted a lot here since it was in the 50s yesterday (that's Fahrenheit) and it rained heavily. The ponds and rivers are all swelling from the mixture of rain and melting snow!