Icy Storm Leaves 11 Dead as It Sweeps Into Northeast - NBCNews.com

By M. Alex Johnson

The snow and ice that swept into the Northeast on Monday, crippling major airports and hindering the recovery from the blizzard last week, has been blamed for at least 11 deaths, and with brutal cold bringing the threat of a flash freeze, Tuesday could again be an icy mess.

New York got a mix of snow and freezing rain, complicating the commute and contributing to the deaths of two people in a serious crash on Interstate 95 on Monday. The Federal Aviation Administration briefly stopped flights from landing at LaGuardia Airport.

LIVE COVERAGE: Storm Hampers Travel Plans From Midwest to Northeast

In New England, snow fell as fast as 3 inches an hour Monday. By early afternoon, Lunenburg, Massachusetts, had more than 13 inches — and that was on top of what still had to be cleared from the blizzard.

Added to the snow already on the ground from last week's blizzard, many Northeast cities will have been blanketed over the past eight days by more than 2 feet of snow by Monday night, forecasters said — 27 inches in New York City; 35 inches in Chatham, Massachusetts; and 26 inches in Westhampton, New York. In all, 4,000 arrivals and departures were canceled at U.S. airports. That included more than 1,000 flights at Chicago O'Hare, 790 at LaGuardia in New York, 590 at Newark Liberty in New Jersey and 570 at Boston Logan.

And forecasters said temperatures would take a deep drive on Monday night, creating a snaking narrow band of freezing rain that could make roads dangerous for millions of people from New York City into southern New England. By 7 a.m. Tuesday, The Weather Channel called for readings of 18 degrees in Philadelphia, 14 in New York, 5 in Boston and 4 below zero in Burlington, Vermont.

Scott Olson / Getty Images

Pedestrians navigate a snow-covered street Sunday in Chicago.

In Boston, Mayor Marty Walsh postponed a Tuesday parade to honor the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots. Schools will also be closed Tuesday because "we already have 12 inches of snow on the ground and up to 6 more inches coming," Walsh said.

The storm has left near-historic snow totals on its was from the Midwest and the upper Plains to the Northeast. Detroit got its third-heaviest snowstorm on record, while Chicago got more than 1½ feet.

The storm was blamed for at least 11 deaths:

• Two people were killed in a serious crash on Interstate 95 in New York.


• A Toledo, Ohio, police officer died of a heart attack while shoveling snow from his sidewalk Monday.


• A Massachusetts woman was struck and killed by a snowplow Monday.


• A 43-year-old man died when his snowmobile crashed Monday in Pontiac State Recreation Area in White Lake Township, Michigan.


• Two people were killed in storm-related car crashes in Nebraska on Sunday.


• Two Indianapolis men were killed in a crash on icy Interstate 74 in Shelby County, Indiana.


• One person was killed when a pickup truck struck a snowplow Sunday in Baroda Township, Michigan, in heavy snow and blowing winds.


• A 67-year-old woman died of exposure Sunday night in a yard in Cass County, Iowa, where the wind chill was 9 degrees below zero.

Three of the four southbound lanes of I-294 in Chicago were closed after a crash involving several cars tractor-trailers, NBC Chicago reported.

New York was expecting 3 to 5 inches of snow by the end of Monday, while Boston reported 9.9 inches at 1 p.m., bringing its total to 34.2 inches over the last seven days — a one-week record.

Kevin Roth, a forecaster for The Weather Channel, said the totals were hard to predict.

"It's a bit like the issue we had last week with New York City being right on the fence about how much snowfall they will get as opposed to just rain," Roth said. "Only this time the city on the fence is Boston."

First published February 2 2015, 2:00 PM

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