Blizzard 2015: Snow Buries New England, Coastal Flooding Reported

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

3:24 AM

By Unknown

In: 2014, News, Top story, Update

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Blizzard 2015: Snow Buries New England, Coastal Flooding Reported - NBCNews.com

Up to 4 inches of snow per hour in New England

Storm surge leads to coastal flooding

Near-whiteout conditions in many areas

Eight states made emergency declarations

By ALASTAIR JAMIESON and ERIN McCLAM

Up to four inches of snow an hour fell in parts of the Northeast early Tuesday as tens of millions of people hunkered down for a historic blizzard that brought New York, Boston and most of the region to an eerie standstill.

New England was braced for two or even three feet of snow, whipped by near-hurricane force winds that created almost whiteout conditions and threatened coastal flooding — but New York City and Philadelphia did not fare as bad as expected.

As winds combined with high tides, a storm surge created waves of up to 20 feet outside Boston Harbor and water crashed over sea defenses in Nantucket, Mass., causing . Dave Fronzuto of Nantucket Emergency Management reported seven feet of water and flooded homes. Maine became the eighth state to declare and emergency in response to the storm.

Islip, New York, was buried under almost 17 inches of snow by 5 a.m. and there was 7.5 inches on the ground in New York's Central Park, the Weather Channel said. Marlborough, Connecticut recorded 16.2 inches.

"The focus is now slightly further to the east," Weather Channel lead forecaster Kevin Roth said. "We had two competing models forecasting the snowfall, one that put the center of the system slightly to the west, one slightly to the east and it was the second one that turned out to be correct.

"New York City may end up with 10-12 inches — which is still a lot — but the worst of it will be from central Long Island and Rhode Island up through to coastal Maine where we could still expect 12-24 inches and maybe up to 30 inches where the storm lingers."

He added: "Even in New York City, the wind is going to blow that snow around and really reduce visibility."

Airlines already canceled more than 4,000 flights on Tuesday, with New York's LaGuardia closed completely and all but a handful of services scratched at other key airports in the region.

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At John F. Kennedy Airport, passengers on at least one outbound Virgin Atlantic flight were stranded when their flight to London was canceled after six hours on the tarmac.

"There's nothing to drink, nothing to eat. It's a disaster," said Alexis Dehasse, a music producer who was aboard Flight VS4 to London, which was supposed to take off at 6:30 p.m. ET but dumped passengers back at the gate after midnight after dealing with de-icing and a sick passenger.

Amtrak suspended Tuesday service on many of its busiest lines, including the Northeast Regional and Acela Express between New York and Boston, and Boston and New York suspended subways.

In many states, roads were closed outright to all but emergency vehicles.

"This snow is going to come in very fast. There'll be fast accumulation, there'll be drifts, there'll be visibility problems, there'll be high winds," New York mayor Bill de Blasio said, adding that gusts in the city could surpass 60 mph. "That is a dangerous situation."