New England Digs Out
Schools and some businesses were closed Tuesday as New England dug out after its worst winter storm in years, a nor'easter that piled snow more than 3 feet deep.
"Enough is enough!" said Christopher Piccione, a salesman who had to dig his van out to make the rounds in Portland. "The first snow is romantic, and a white Christmas is nice. After that, phewww!"
"There's no room to put any more snow," said Jim Curran, who returned home to Washington, N.H., late Monday from a beach vacation at Cancun, Mexico, and had to plow 2 feet of snow away just to get to his door.
Washington, N.H., had one of the biggest snow accumulations at 35 inches, but nearby Newport topped everyone with 38.
The storm, punctuated by unusual winter thunder and lightning, spread snow from eastern Pennsylvania — where Allentown got 17 inches on Monday — to Maine, where Bridgton got 19 by the time flakes stopped falling Tuesday. The western Massachusetts town of Buckland received 29 inches.
"At one point it was a complete whiteout," said police dispatcher Matthew Mielke in Easthampton, Mass. "The snow was coming sideways."
In Springfield, Mass., Mayor Michael Albano declared a state of emergency and asked businesses to remain closed until 4 p.m. so crews could remove 22 inches of snow from the streets.
"This is biggest storm we've had since 1949, bigger than the Blizzard of 1978," Albano said. "The snow is so heavy and wet and there is so much of it that the private contractors with pickups just can't move it and we have to send the big city trucks into the smaller residential streets."
Portland's 14-inch accumulation was its heaviest since 18.6 inches fell during the "Storm of the Century" in March 1993, according to the National Weather Service.
It was enough snow to bring many businesses to a halt in Maine, a state accustomed to clearing away even the heaviest snowfall. Many people couldn't get out of their driveways Tuesday morning, and many schools were closed in Maine and other parts of New England.
Snow was still falling so hard Tuesday morning that the Navy decided not to let a new warship, the 510-foot destroyer Winston S. Churchill, sail from Bath Iron Works on its first voyage with its own crew.
Some travelers had to spend the night at the airport at Manchester, N.H., and Connecticut's Bradley Airport near Hartford was closed for nearly 18 hours. Dozens of flights were canceled or delayed at other airports, including New York's LaGuardia and Boston's Logan.
Thousands of people were stranded for hours on major Connecticut highways because of accidents.
Sharon Osborne of Portland, who insisted she likes the snow, took two hours to shovel her driveway Tuesday morning. She added: "My body was protesting at all I had to do just to get to the street."
One fatality was reported thusfar: Police in Rotterdam, New York say a 25-year-old man died in a snowmobile crah early this morning.
Police in Rotterdam say Gerald Scalzetto was killed when he hit a cable strung across a railroad track access road. The property where the accident occurred is owned by CSX Railroad. No word on whether drugs or alcohol played a part in the crash.