Snow blankets East, keeping travelers stranded and would-be shoppers at home

Snow storm hits southern New England

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A slow-moving storm that blanketed swaths of the mid-Atlantic with nearly 2 feet of snow reached southern New England on Sunday in a weekend assault along the East Coast that caused at least five deaths, crippled travel and left empty stores normally crammed with holiday shoppers.

Blizzard warnings were in effect for parts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts with gusts up to 60 mph. As much as 16 inches of snow was expected to cover parts of southern New England.

The early arrival of wintry weather on a quiet Sunday morning, however, could not have been better timing, said Peter Judge, spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.

“Other than spoiling the Christmas shopping — from the emergency manager perspective it was the perfect timing,” Judge said. “Even the cleanup today, we’re not fighting the people who would be trying to get to work.”

Still others were struggling with the aftermath.

On the cusp of the winter solstice, the storm dropped 16 inches of snow on Reagan National Airport outside Washington on Saturday — the most ever recorded there for a single December day — and gave southern New Jersey its highest single-storm snowfall totals in nearly four years. Some of the deepest was recorded in the Philadelphia suburb of Medford, N.J., at 24 inches.

Around New York City, the brunt of the storm hit Long Island, with whiteout conditions. Nearly 25 inches were recorded in Upton by Sunday. Nearly 11 inches of snow fell on New York City by Sunday morning, and the storm could be the worst the city has seen since about 26 inches fell in Central Park in February 2006, National Weather Service meteorologist Patrick Maloit said.

Even as the storm winded down in the metro area, conditions remained treacherous and drivers were advised to stay off the roads, Maloit said. Delays were expected on bus, subway and train routes.

Near Farmingdale, N.Y., about 150 people were stranded on a Long Island Rail Road train for more than five hours by a combination of snow drifts, icing, traffic problems and equipment failures due to the weather.

Railroad spokeswoman Susan McGowan said the Ronkonkoma-bound train left Penn Station at 2:53 a.m. Sunday and eventually had to be towed to a nearby station and passengers put on a second train and sent on their way. No injuries were reported.

McGowan says LIRR was offering only limited service, and delays were averaging two hours.

Airports in the Northeast that were jammed up in the storm Saturday were working their way back to normal operations.

By Sunday morning, only one runway at Dulles International Airport in Washington was open, handling arriving flights, airport spokeswoman Tara Hamilton. At Reagan National, crews were still “moving the huge quantities of snow” dumped on the area, and Hamilton said the airport should be opening for business by midmorning.

Both airports anticipated a busy day with people catching their flights set for Sunday and those who were unable to fly Friday and Saturday, she said.

Philadelphia International Airport spokeswoman Phyllis VanIstendal said that with continuing bad weather and planes out of place, problems would continue Sunday.

The blustery weather Friday caused flooding in South Florida and knocked out electricity for more than 85,000 customers in the Carolinas before turning to snow as it moved its way north. On Saturday, the governors of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware and the mayors of Washington and Philadelphia all declared states of emergency.

One person in Virginia was killed in a traffic accident caused by slick roads, and authorities said the weather may have contributed to another traffic death there. A third death in Virginia is believed to have been caused by exposure. In Ohio, two people were killed in accidents on snow-covered roads hit by the same storm system.

Greyhound shut down service in Washington, D.C. and farther north, and ferry service in Delaware and New Jersey was canceled. Attractions such as the Smithsonian museums in Washington and the Philadelphia Zoo were closed. The National Mall, normally swarming with tourists, instead was the scene of snowball fights. Many retailers, hoping for a rush of shoppers on the last weekend before Christmas, spent a quiet day among the merchandise.

Associated Press writers Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, N.J.; Sarah Karush in Washington; Dena Potter in Chesterfield, Va.; Jacob Jordan in Atlanta; David Porter in Atlantic City, N.J.; Bruce Shipkowski in Trenton, N.J.; Ron Todt and Patrick Walters in Philadelphia; and AP photographer Jacquelyn Martin in Arlington, Va., contributed to this report.