WASHINGTON // A massive blizzard swirled toward the eastern United States on Friday, one that the National Weather Service said could rank near the top 10 to hit the region. With 61 centimetres of snow predicted for Washington alone, schools were closed, flights were cancelled and a state of emergency was declared across a vast area.
Meteorologist Paul Kocin compared the Winter Storm Jonas, as it’s been dubbed, to “Snowmageddon,” the first of two storms that “wiped out” Washington in 2010 and dumped up to 76 centimetres of snow, but said the weekend timing and the days of warning could help limit deaths and damage.
“It does have the potential to be an extremely dangerous storm that can affect more than 50 million people,” Louis Uccellini, director of the weather service, said at its Weather Prediction Center in Maryland.
He said all the elements have come together to create a blizzard with brutally high winds, dangerous inland flooding, whiteout conditions and even the possibility of thunder snow, when lightning strikes through a snowstorm. The snowfall, expected to continue from late Friday into Sunday, could easily cause more than $1 billion in damage and paralyse the eastern third of the nation, Uccellini said.
A state of emergency was declared in Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia and parts of other states, and road crews were out in force. Blizzard warnings or watches were in effect along the storm’s path, from Arkansas through Tennessee and Kentucky to the mid-Atlantic states and as far north as New York.
Schools and government offices were closed, thousands of flights were cancelled, including some by Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi, and food and supplies flew off store shelves as millions of people stocked up. College basketball games and concerts in the region were postponed.
Washington looks like the bull’s-eye of the blizzard, and New York City is just inside the slow-moving storm’s sharp northern edge, which means it is likely to see heavy accumulations, Mr Uccellini said.
The capital’s subway system said it will shut down entirely late Friday night and remain closed through Sunday for the sake of employee and rider safety. Underground stations usually stay open during major snowstorms.
On Thursday, icy conditions caused accidents that killed two drivers in North Carolina and one in Tennessee. A lorry with a snowplow killed a pedestrian in Maryland.
At a supermarket in Baltimore, Sharon Brewington stocked her cart with snacks, bread, milk and cold cuts, remembering that in the massive snowstorm of 2010, she and her daughter were stuck at home with nothing but noodles and water.
“I’m not going to make that mistake again,” she said.
* Associated Press