Drivers in much of the American Northeast navigated a treacherous mix of rain, sleet and snow on Monday as a storm blamed for at least 11 deaths blanketed the region after glazing roads in the Midwest.
Schools cancelled or delayed classes from New York to Maine as highways turned slippery and wind gusted to 64km/h in parts of the region.
The speed limit on part of the Massachusetts Turnpike was cut to 64km/h as police reported numerous traffic accidents around the state during the morning commute.
”It’s kind of a mess — probably the best way to term it in one word,” meteorologist Bob Kilpatrick said in Albany.
The National Weather Service said about 30cm of snow was possible in the mountains of northern New England, with the potential for about 50cm in northern Maine. Upstate New York’s central Adirondacks and Lake George region could see 30cm of snow.
By Monday morning, 15cm of snow had fallen at Springfield, Vermont, and in parts of central New York state.
Ice-storm warnings were issued for Massachusetts and Connecticut, while winter-storm warnings were in effect in Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and northern and western New York. On the other side of the weather system, winter-storm warnings were issued for parts of Michigan, which could get 8cm to 13cm of snow by Monday afternoon.
Ice caused a JetBlue plane to slide off the runway at Syracuse’s Hancock Airport late on Sunday. No one was hurt, but it took crews two hours to free the stuck plane.
The storm dumped snow and ice from the plains across the upper Midwest on Saturday.
Lingering rain and poor visibility caused about 50 flight cancellations on Sunday afternoon at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, forcing about 75 people to stay at the airport overnight, said Gregg Cunningham, a spokesperson for Chicago’s department of aviation.
Hundreds of flights into the New York City area’s three main airports — Kennedy, Newark Liberty and LaGuardia — were delayed as long as two hours on Sunday because of wind and ice, but no delays were reported early on Monday.
The weather was blamed for four deaths in Michigan, three in Wisconsin and one each in Illinois, Indiana, North Dakota and Colorado.
While the Midwest dug out and the Northeast braced itself, a separate storm raked the Oregon and Washington coasts with winds gusting higher than 160km/h in some spots. Officials warned of coastal flooding. — Sapa-AP