3M powerless as October snow surprises Northeast
SOUTH WINDSOR, Conn. (AP) - October 30, 2011
A freak October nor'easter knocked out power to more than 3
million homes and businesses across the Northeast on Sunday in
large part because leaves still on the trees caught more snow,
overloading branches that snapped and wreaked havoc. Close to 2
feet of snow fell in some areas over the weekend, and it was
particularly wet and heavy, making the storm even more damaging.
"You just have absolute tree carnage with this heavy snow just
straining the branches," said National Weather Service spokesman
Chris Vaccaro.
From Maryland to Maine, officials said it would take days to
restore electricity, even though the snow ended Sunday.
The storm smashed record snowfall totals for October and
worsened as it moved north. Communities in western Massachusetts
were among the hardest hit. Snowfall totals topped 27 inches in
Plainfield, and nearby Windsor had gotten 26 inches by early
Sunday. It was blamed for at least three deaths, and states of
emergency were declared in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts
and parts of New York.
Roads, rails and airline flights were knocked out, and
passengers on a JetBlue flight were stuck on a plane in Hartford,
Conn., for more than seven hours. And while children across the
region were thrilled to see snow so early, it also complicated many
of their Halloween plans.
Sharon Martovich of Southbury, Conn., said she hoped the power
will come back on in time for her husband's Halloween tradition of
playing "Young Frankenstein" on a giant screen in front of their
house. But no matter what, she said, they will make sure the eight
or so children who live in the neighborhood don't miss out on
trick-or-treating.
"Either way we will get the giant flashlights and we will go,"
she said.
More than 800,000 power customers were without electricity in
Connecticut alone - shattering the record set just two months ago
by Hurricane Irene. Massachusetts had more than 600,000 outages,
and so did New Jersey - including Gov. Chris Christie's house.
Parts of Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, New York, Maine, Maryland and
Vermont also were without power.
"It's going to be a more difficult situation than we
experienced in Irene," Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said.
"We are expecting extensive and long-term power outages."
Thirty-two shelters were open around the state, and Malloy asked
volunteer fire departments to allow people in for warmth and
showers. At least four hospitals were relying on generators for
power.
Around Newtown in western Connecticut, trees were so laden with
snow on some back roads that the branches touched the street. Every
few minutes, a snap filled the air as one broke and tumbled down.
Roads that were plowed became impassible because the trees were
falling so fast.
One of the few businesses open in the area was a Big Y grocery
store that had a generator. Customers loaded up on supplies, heard
news updates over the intercom, charged up their cell phones, and
waited for a suddenly hard-to-get cup of coffee - in a line that
was 30 people deep and growing.
Many of the areas hit by the storm had also been hit by Irene.
In New Jersey's Hamilton Township, Tom Jacobsen also recalled heavy
spring flooding and a particularly heavy winter before that.
"I'm starting to think we really ticked off Mother Nature
somehow, because we've been getting spanked by her for about a year
now," he said while grabbing some coffee at a convenience store.
It wasn't just the trees that weren't fully ready for a wintry
wallop.
Kerry McNiven said she was "totally unprepared" for the storm
that knocked out her water and power and sent tree limbs crashing
into her Simsbury, Conn., home. She was buying disposable plates
and cups in a darkened supermarket, a setting that she said
resembled "one of those post-apocalyptic TV shows."
"They didn't hype this one as much" as Irene, she said. "I
didn't think it was going to be as bad."
In Concord, N.H., Dave Whitcher's company had yet to prep its
sanding equipment before the storm dropped nearly 2 feet of snow.
His crews were plowing and shoveling parking lots Sunday, and would
be back Monday to salt sidewalks and walkways.
"It was a bit of a surprise, the amount and how heavy it was.
We should've probably come out and got a little earlier start, but
we did all right," Whitcher said. He held up his shovel and added,
"Me and this guy are going to get to know each other real well
today."
Vaccaro, the weather service spokesman, said the snowstorm
"absolutely crushed previous records that in some cases dated back
more than 100 years." Saturday was only the fourth snowy October
day in New York's Central Park since record-keeping began 135 years
ago.
There usually isn't enough cold air in the region to support a
nor'easter this time of year, but an area of high pressure over
southeastern Canada funneled cold air south into the U.S., Vaccaro
said. That cold air combined with moisture coming from the North
Carolina coast to produce the unseasonable weather.
Though the fact that leaves were still on the trees worsened
storm damage inland, the nor'easter did less damage in coastal
areas than it would have in winter because warm ocean temperatures
limited snowfall, Vaccaro said.
A few businesses enjoyed the early snow: Ski resorts in Vermont
and Maine opened early. But it was more commonly an aggravation.
Many residents were urged to avoid travel altogether. Speed
limits were reduced on bridges between New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
A few roads closed because of accidents and downed trees and power
lines, said Sean Brown, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department
of Transportation.
The JetBlue passengers stranded Saturday at Hartford's Bradley
International Airport were on a flight from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.,
to Newark, N.J., that had been diverted. Passenger Andrew Carter, a
football reporter for the Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, said the
plane ran out of snacks and bottled water, and the toilets backed
up.
JetBlue spokeswoman Victoria Lucia said power outages at the
airport has made it difficult to get passengers off the plane, and
added that the passengers would be reimbursed.
In 2007, passengers in JetBlue planes were stranded for nearly
11 hours at New York's Kennedy Airport following snow and ice
storms.
There were other flight delays in the region over the weekend,
and commuter trains in Connecticut and New York were delayed or
suspended because of downed trees and signal problems. Amtrak
suspended service on several Northeast routes, and one train from
Chicago to Boston got stuck overnight in Palmer, Mass. The 48
passengers had food and heat, a spokeswoman said, and they were
taken by bus Sunday to their destinations.
In southeastern Pennsylvania, an 84-year-old man was killed when
a snow-laden tree fell on his home while he was napping in his
recliner. In Connecticut, the governor said one person died in a
Colchester traffic accident that he blamed on slippery conditions.
And a 20-year-old man in Springfield, Mass., stopped when he saw
police and firefighters examining downed wires and stepped in the
wrong place and was electrocuted, Capt. William Collins said.
The snow was a bone-chilling slush in New York City, and was a
taste of what's to come for demonstrators camping out at Zuccotti
Park in lower Manhattan for the Occupy Wall Street protest.
Nick Lemmin, of Brooklyn, spent his first night at Zuccotti in a
sleeping bag in a tent, wearing thermals, a sweatshirt and a scarf.
"I slept actually pretty well," he said. "It was pretty
quiet."
Lemmin said he thought the early snow was actually "a good
test," giving protesters a chance to deal with such weather before
it sets in more permanently.
The weather was too much for protester Adash Daniel, who had
already been in the park for three weeks. "I'm not much good to
this movement if I'm shivering," he said as he left.
The snow was relatively light in Manhattan, as it was farther
north in Albany, where a couple of dirt- and leaf-caked snowmen
stood about the protesters waving "We are the 99 percent" signs
for passing cars.
In Concord, 9-year-old Nate Smith had more than enough snow to
make a proper snowman with his brother, but he was worried about
Halloween. He wasn't sure he'd be able to go trick-or-treating, and
even if he did, his werewolf costume could end up looking a little
different than he had imagined.
"I might have to put on snow pants," he said.
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Associated Press writers Noreen Gillespie-Connolly in Newtown,
Conn.; Ron Todt in Philadelphia; Verena Dobnik, Deepti Hajela and
Candice Choi in New York; Mary Esch in Albany, N.Y.; Holly Ramer in
Concord, N.H.; and Bruce Shipkowski in Trenton, N.J., contributed
to this report.