NatDis - Noreaster wallops New England

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Nor'easter wallops New England, but weaker than feared

March 6, 2001 Web posted at: 3:46 p.m. EST (2046 GMT)

BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- A major snowstorm didn't pack the punch some officials expected Tuesday, but it still dumped heavy snow across New England and caused coastal flooding in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts and Connecticut declared states of emergency as the nor'easter moved in late Monday, and strong winds at high tide drove Atlantic waters over the beaches and into streets of coastal towns.

"Obviously, the state has been pretty hard hit with the coast. Particularly, we've had flooding from Plymouth through all the communities north of Plymouth. Several roadways are covered with water," Massachusetts Gov. Paul Celluci said.

"We've got over 600 National Guard troops who are ready to evacuate people in those coastal areas should they need evacuation," he added. "I will also say that we have about 80,000 customers without power."

But Celluci said most of the roads in the areas north and west of Boston were open despite heavy snows, and the state planned to return to business as usual Wednesday.

The nor'easter formed off the upper Atlantic coast on Monday, dropping heavy snow across inland sections of Connecticut, Massachusetts and eastern New York and causing airlines to cancel hundreds of flights, although New York airports remained open.

"Our approach today is that we're just going to get as many flights off the ground as we possibly can, until the weather tells us otherwise," Continental Airlines spokesman Bob McHugh said at the airline's hub in Newark, New Jersey.

Storm fails to match billing

Western and central Massachusetts residents were told to expect 15 inches to 30 inches of snow by Wednesday morning. Forecasters said the nor'easter will prompt coastal flood warnings from New England south to New York and New Jersey as dangerously high winds and waves threaten shorelines.

In sections of Worcester County, Massachusetts, 18 inches had already fallen Monday night. Whiteout blizzard conditions were expected for Essex County, near Massachusetts' border with New Hampshire. Power lines in Norfolk were a concern, made vulnerable by heavy winds, coats of ice and falling limbs.

Connecticut Gov. John Rowland ordered all nonessential state employees to stay home Tuesday and continued a tractor-trailer ban for all highways. Schools were closed as well.

"My goal is to get through the next 48 hours with as little damage as possible and certainly keeping our community safe," Rowland said.

But much of the East was spared the impact of a storm that had been billed as a monster over the weekend.

"The reality is for most of the East, the ingredients just didn't come together to produce the type of storm that many were claiming," said Ken Reeves, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather in State College, Pennsylvania.

'We deal with it'

In Albany, New York, Mayor Gerald Jennings said schools were closed and a city order limited parking to one side of the streets so crews could clear the snow and allow traffic to pass.

"We're well-prepared for this. I mean, we live in the great Northeast, so when it's dealt to us, we deal with it," Jennings said.

In Rhode Island, part of the roof of the state Lottery Commission collapsed under the weight of ice and snow Tuesday morning, lottery director Gerald Aubin said. The incident sent workers scrambling from the building, but none of the 14 employees inside at the time was hurt, he said.

By Tuesday night, the nor'easter is expected to move from New York south to New Jersey, where it was not clear what form the precipitation would take.

New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Tuesday that no state of emergency would be declared to cope with the milder-than-expected snowstorm hitting the city, but the storm was disrupting travel throughout much of the Northeast.

"We'll see a real big increase in snowfall ... and blizzard or near-blizzard conditions throughout the region," National Weather Service forecaster Butch Roberts said. "Visibility will be near zero, and there will be whiteout conditions."

Maine watching tides; Pacific storm hits California

Maine also will be closely watching coming high tides, which because of the new moon would have been higher than normal even without the storm, meteorologists said. But Art Cleaves, director of the Maine Emergency Management Agency, said very few problems have popped up despite accumulations approaching 2 feet in the southern part of the state.

"It's not quite the significant impact we expected power outage-wise or flooding-wise," despite 40 mph winds, Cleaves said.

Meanwhile, across the continent, a pounding Pacific winter storm moved inland after dumping up to 13 inches of rain along the foothills and mountains of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties as it moved ashore in southern California late Monday. The heavy rains will dump another 5-10 inches of rain on those areas before moving slowly south on Tuesday to the Los Angeles Basin and San Diego.

"Southern California doesn't get this type of rain," said Todd Morris, meteorologist in charge of the Los Angeles-area Weather Forecast Office in Oxnard. By Wednesday, the Los Angeles area could pick up 5 inches to 10 inches of rain in the mountain areas, and 2 to 5 inches in the low-lying regions, he said.

"When the heavy rain comes to Los Angeles, we will watch carefully for widespread urban flooding," Morris said. Melting snow in the mountains will heighten the flood risk, he said.

-- Anonymous, March 06, 2001


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