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Get Ready, Northeast

Blizzards Set to Hit Northeast

Dec. 29 - The Northeast is bracing for one of the worst snowstorms to hit the region in recent years as a powerful winter system moves out of the South, giving that region a break from the ice and snow that fell there this week.

The storm system crippled the southern Plains and is blamed for at least 41 deaths. Tens of thousands of people in the area were still without heat tonight, a week after the ice storm hit the region. The system is expected to dump as much as a foot and a half of snow on areas of the Midwest and Northeast over New Year's weekend.

The Northeast is also preparing for what forecasters are predicting to be powerful winds over the holiday weekend due to a nor'easter that is developing over the Atlantic Ocean near North Carolina, where it was expected to gain strength. The two storms are expected to collide sometime early Saturday. Forecasters are predicting 6 to 18 inches of snow on Washington D.C., Philadelphia, New York and Boston.

Major airlines canceled large numbers of weekend flights up and down the Eastern Seaboard as the blizzard threatened to pummel the region. American Airlines and Delta planned selective cancellations in cities stretching from Washington D.C. to Boston. Continental planned to drop up to 225 New York-area flights scheduled for the weekend.

The storm has been characterized by meteorologists as a “weather bomb,” and might prove to be the biggest on the East Coast this winter, according to Jim Hoke of the National Weather Service in Camp Springs, Md.

Forecasters expect the storm to move through parts of the Midwest and to the East Coast and into New England by Saturday and linger through Sunday. Parts of northern Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota are expected to see up to 6 inches added to the region's significant snowfall by midnight Friday.

Stocking up on Supplies

The New York area hasn't been hit with major snowfall in a few years, but already people have begun flocking to the stores to stock up on necessities.

Home Depot sales representative Dominic Hacamo in Secaucus, N.J., said business has been brisk.

“We sold 1,000 shovels within the last 12 hours, and 5,000 bags of ice melt,” Hacamo said. “One lady walked out of here with 10 shovels under her arm!”

Arturo Berrocal was one of those customers.

“I'm getting six bags of ice melt and three shovels,” Berrocal said as he left the store, “one for everyone in the family.”

In New York City, where thousands of people make a yearly pilgrimage to celebrate New Year's Eve in Times Square, cleanup crews have already reved up the snow plows, along with about 200,000 pounds of salt and thousands of cleanup workers.

It could be the largest snowfall in the city since the blizzard of 1996, which dumped more than 20 inches of snow.

The mayor's Office of Emergency Management will have more than 100 people working throughout the weekend monitoring the storm and getting ready to dispatch crews as needed.

“We are planning with all the other agencies to get rid of the snow as quickly as possible,” said Frank McCarton of the emergency management office.

Workers were armed with 1,400 snowplows and 353 salt-spreading machines, while employees at the region's three major airports -- Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark -- were waiting to use new high-speed plows and snow melters.

In the Plains, a Snowy December

The weather system that is expected to hit the Northeastern part of the country on Saturday dumped up to 9 inches of snow in Minnesota, putting the state on track for one of the three snowiest Decembers in more than 100 years, said Assistant State Climatologist Pete Boulay.

Boulay said 28.5 inches of snow have fallen this month in the Twin Cities -- the most ever recorded was 33.2 inches in 1969.

The heavy snow ranged far and wide. Before Thursday's storm, more than 30 inches of snow had fallen in parts of far north and south Minnesota, according to Boulay's office.

In South, Cleanup Continues

Meanwhile, the South is digging out from several days of ice and snow.

In parts of Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma, ice has brought down trees and power lines and turned roads and highways into skating rinks.

Emergency crews don't expect to get electricity back to all Arkansas residents for at least another ten days.

President Clinton declared a state of emergency in Oklahoma and Arkansas. Hundreds of thousands of residents in both states have been left without electricity.

“We are having to rebuild from the ground up,” Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said today on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America. “It literally is a rebuilding of every pole, line and distribution system in many cases.”

Huckabee added that it would still take up to 10 more days to restore power to parts of the state. But he is receiving help from other states. Energy Arkansas summoned linemen from 23 states to help it repair lines.

Utility crews from as far away as Delaware and Michigan are climbing poles, hacking at tree limbs and wrestling 13,800-volt power lines in freezing cold to reconnect thousands of people who have been suffering since the Christmas Day storm.

“There's some parts you can't get into,” said Detroit Edison employee Bob Barrette. “You have to wait for the sun to melt the ice.”

Caravans of utility trucks reading Detroit Edison or HP&L (for Houston Power and Light) have become a common sight, along with tree-trimming trucks, chain saws and wood chippers. Many of the utility workers were in Arkansas two weeks ago, helping restore power after a Dec. 12-13 ice storm that left some people without power for 10 days. After going home for two days over Christmas, many of the workers were called back.

Authorities blame 41 deaths on the bad weather: 22 in Texas, 11 in Oklahoma, four in New Mexico, two in Arkansas and one each in Missouri and Minnesota. A Greyhound bus rolled over on an icy stretch of Interstate 80 in Nebraska, injuring 33 people.

In Texas, at least 1,000 people were stranded in their cars Wednesday and Thursday on a 10-mile stretch of Interstate 20 east of Abilene. In Oklahoma, the dead included a 12-year-old boy whose makeshift sled barreled down a highway embankment and into the path of a tractor-trailer Wednesday.

ABCNEWS.com's Maria F. Durand, WABC in New York, ABCNEWS Radio and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

-- (in@the.news), December 30, 2000

Answers

What are these people so bent out of shape about?

It is winter.

It gets cold.

It gets windy.

Sometimes it gets icy.

Occasionally, a large storm system comes through and dumps massive amounts of snow.

C'mon, it's not like this has never happended before. Do we have a bunch of youngsters writing all these storm stories who don't remember the storms of the 1960s???

-- (dis@enfranch.ized), December 30, 2000.

Authorities blame 41 deaths on the bad weather: 22 in Texas, 11 in Oklahoma, four in New Mexico, two in Arkansas and one each in Missouri and Minnesota.

That's why these storm stories are still being written.

I do agree with you about the 1960s, though. There are far fewer major snowfalls in my state in recent years than in the '60s. Maybe there is something to this global warming thing even though there are still blizzards like this one occasionally.

-- Have a safe and (warm@holiday.season), December 30, 2000.

Yes, I know: "If it bleeds, it leads." I'm just annoyed at the number of these Gee Whiz Snow Stories. Maybe I'm just getting old.

-- (dis@enfranch.ized), December 30, 2000.

You just have the flu, Dis. Now log out and go check your back door. I left you some sustenance and hopefully, it hasn't frozen.

-- (kb8um8@yahoo.com), December 30, 2000.

Winter Storm Buries New York Area

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=004JxL

-- (We@ther.update), December 30, 2000.

Winter has been good here. The heavy ice storms have been south in Arkansas and the heavy snow has been north. We just get these, almost, daily storms of 1 to 3 inches. We get them over and over. It hasn't been near freezing [32 F] in 26 days. Half of those days it has been below 0 at night. The snow isn't really deep [maybe 6 inches in the yard; it just keeps compacting] but it has slowly developed into something like concrete. The truck doesn't even sink in anymore. It will be here until April. Love this weather.

Best Wishes,,,,,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), December 30, 2000.

Its mid summer here and we have just had two weeks of lovely warm weather. But right at the moment it is hailing outside, and this morning there was a fresh skiff of snow on the mountains.

Just because you don't like the snow storms that are hitting North America, there is no need to send them over here. :-)

-- Malcolm Taylor (taylorm@es.co.nz), December 30, 2000.