NEW YORK, Dec 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A winter storm marched up the US East Coast on Wednesday, delivering a disruptive blow to transportation systems and a welcome day off for some school kids, but not for many who have been learning remotely during the pandemic.
By mid-afternoon, the Nor’easter had brought a wintry mix to Washington and wind-whipped snow to New York City, parts of Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania as it threatened a swathe of the country that is home to more than 50 million people.
The sprawling system could dump up to 60cm of snow in an area stretching from eastern Pennsylvania to New York’s Catskill Mountains, with lesser amounts of 30cm or more in the rest of the Northeast, forecasters said.
Parts of Virginia and North Carolina will be blanketed with a thin layer of ice while areas in the Mid-Atlantic region closer to the coast will get only rain before the storm moves out to sea from Boston late on Thursday, they said.
Officials throughout the area urged motorists to stay off the roads and residents to stay home. New Jersey Transit drove home that point by suspending bus and rail service in the northern part of the state after Wednesday’s evening rush hour.
With the first flakes landing in the New York area by mid-afternoon, the region’s three busy airports reported that 20 per cent to 30 per cent of flights had already been cancelled and more were expected as accumulations mounted.
Widespread power outages were also possible because of strong winds, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities said.
Normally, major winter storms in the forecast meant children could count on a getting a day off of school, an especially welcome relief for those facing exams. But pandemic-induced remote learning has made the “snow day” less of a sure thing.
But a school system in Jefferson County, West Virginia, within commuting distance of Washington, took a different approach, declaring proudly in a note widely shared on social media that it is shutting down on Wednesday in honour of snow.
New York City schools, which just recently reopened their classrooms after a brief pandemic-induced shutdown, were set to go fully remote on Thursday when students are likely to wake up to more than 30cm of snow on the ground, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
“I know we all grew up with the excitement of snow days, but this year is different,” de Blasio said on Twitter.
The city said it would suspend its coronavirus testing programme for nearly a day starting on Wednesday afternoon, but de Blasio said testing and the city’s nascent COVID-19 vaccination programme would remain on schedule. — NNN-AGENCIES
