Via The New York Times: Storm’s Heavy Snow and High Winds Lash at the Northeast. Click through for photos, slide shows and related reports. Excerpt:
A vast storm system descended on the Northeast on Friday, bringing high winds, deepening snow and threats of flooding to southern New England and reopening the old wounds of Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey and New York.
After a day of pelting wet snow, five states — New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island — had declared states of emergency, and Massachusetts had banned vehicles from every road in the state.
As dusk fell, conditions quickly deteriorated. Major highways like Interstate 93 were almost completely abandoned; downtown Boston, in blizzard conditions, was a ghost town lost in a swirl of howling winds and snow. Parked cars lost their shape and resembled scoops of ice cream.
The worst was still to come, at least in New England. Forecasters said the storm would continue through Saturday afternoon and winds could reach 75 miles per hour, leaving behind a fresh white blanket perhaps three feet thick.
In New York City, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg told people to stay home and warned them not to “panic buy” gasoline because the supply was plentiful.
But the memory of Hurricane Sandy in October was still so raw that many across the region went on buying sprees anyway, emptying store shelves and filling extra containers of gasoline in addition to their car tanks.
