• State of emergency declared in New York state
• New York mayor De Blasio: 'We have to be ready for this'
• Do you live in the storm's path? Share your photos
• New York mayor De Blasio: 'We have to be ready for this'
• Do you live in the storm's path? Share your photos
More than 10 inches of snow was expected in New York City and up to 14 inches in Boston, with weather warnings affecting more than 100 million people in cities across the region.
The storm is expected to move across more than a dozen states. Heavy snow and strong winds are expected across the north-east through Thursday evening and into Friday.
The National Weather Service warned that bitter cold will move in following the storms, as it forecast temperatures 20 to 30F below normal. The NWS warned of “the most frigid conditions” in years in New York City and elsewhere in the state. Blizzards were expected along stretches of the eastern seaboard, from Long Island in New York to Boston.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced a “statewide state of emergency” just before 4pm on Thursday. He warned motorists to “stay off the roads if you can”.
At an early evening briefing the new mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, said a decision on whether to close New York City's public schools would be taken in the early hours of Friday morning. De Blasio also said New Yorkers should use mass transit rather than drive, but warned that people should expect delays.
In Massachusetts, state workers were sent home at 3pm and the state’s governor, Deval Patrick, urged private employers to do the same. The Massachusetts emergency management agency said it would be at level three, indicating that local state of emergencies would be declared and that state and federal recovery assistance would be required.
"Temperatures are expected to plummet tonight and tomorrow with wind chills dropping as low as 25 degrees below zero [Fahrenheit, -32C)],” Patrick said. "That is a very dangerous set of circumstances."
Weather advisories have been put in place from Chicago eastward. The more severe winter storm warnings were in effect in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina, West Virginia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine on Thursday.
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WSJ
Winter Storm Headed for New York
Almost 10 Inches of Snow and Wind Chills Below Zero Are Expected in Parts of New York
Updated Jan. 2, 2014 5:31 p.m. ET
The first snowstorm of 2014 is heading for the U.S.
northeast, with more than six inches of snow expected in New York and
southern New England before Saturday. Photo: Associated Press.
New York City-area authorities on
Thursday urged residents to stay home, ordered highways be shut down and
scaled back some mass-transit service as a dangerous snowstorm barreled
into the region from the Midwest.
One
day into his new job, the city's mayor, Bill de Blasio, said the
Department of Sanitation was ready for a nor'easter predicted to dump a
half a foot or more of snow on the city. The storm was expected to be
the first test of the de Blasio's administration, and the city had
mobilized about 2,300 sanitation workers for each 12-hour shift, 450
salt spreaders and 1,700 trucks with plows.
With the storm approaching, Marco Iuele inspects a
salt spreader while shopping at Meadowlands Hardware in East Rutherford,
N.J., on Thursday.
Associated Press
"We are not taking anything lightly," Mr. de Blasio said, adding the city had "all hands on deck."
The
National Weather Service predicted treacherous conditions, with wind
gusts from 25 to 30 miles an hour and wind chills below zero. By late
Thursday, weather service officials reported about two inches of snow,
with wind gusts of 40 mph or more in New York City and Long Island.
Temperatures were in the low 20s, with wind chill around 5 degrees.
States of emergency were declared in New York and New Jersey.
"Exposed skin could start to freeze within 15 minutes," said Tim Morrin, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service.
Mr.
de Blasio advised New Yorkers to expect schools to be open tomorrow,
but a final decision there—and throughout much of the region—would be
made early Friday morning. Some school districts in Northern New Jersey
announced they would be closed Friday.
The
brunt of the storm was expected to be felt in Long Island, where up to
10 inches of snow were predicted, and upstate New York, where
authorities were expecting 14 inches in some places. Gov.
Andrew Cuomo
shut down the Long Island Expressway and parts of Interstate
87—two vital commercial arteries in and out of the city—beginning at
midnight on Friday.
A pedestrian walks through morning snow in Albany Thursday.
Associated Press
Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano
said he expected the LIE to be opened for the morning commute, but added
that was a decision for Mr. Cuomo. Road crews were out early Thursday
morning on Long Island to brine roads, which raises asphalt temperature
and prevents icing.
The storm is an
early test for PSEG Long Island, the utility that took over management
of Long Island's electric grid on Jan. 1. The Long Island Power
Authority, PSEG's predecessor, faced criticism of its storm preparation
and response in recent years—a major factor in the state's decision to
switch to a new utility. "It is two days in, but we have pulled together
a team that I think is one of the best in the country," said Paul
Rosengren, a PSEG spokesman.
The Department of Sanitation keeps tons of salt in a building at 2 Bloomfield St. on the West Side.
Philip Montgomery for The Wall Street Journal
PSEG and other utility companies
across the region were ordering extra crews in case of widespread
outages. Officials said the scope of power failures would depend on how
wet and heavy the snow was and whether it would weigh down electricity
lines.
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