LITTLE ROCK — A blizzard began its brutal descent on the Northeast on Friday packing high winds, deepening snow and threatening to flood the region that is still recovering from Hurricane Sandy.
After a day of pelting wet snow, five states - New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island - had declared states of emergency, and Massachusetts had banned vehicles from every road in the state. Conditions deteriorated as dusk fell. Major highways such as Interstate 93 have been almost completely abandoned. Downtown Boston was a ghost town lost in a swirl of snow.
Throughout the Northeast, about 500,000 homes and businesses lost electricity as wet, heavy snow, freezing rain and howling winds wreaked havoc.
The worst was expected Friday night and early today. Forecasters said the storm would continue through this afternoon, leaving a fresh blanket perhaps 3 feet deep.
In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg told people to stay home and warned them not to “panic buy” gasoline, because the supply was plentiful. But the memory of Sandy is still so raw that many across the region went on buying sprees anyway, emptying store shelves and filling extra containers of gasoline in addition to their car tanks.
“I don’t think it’s going to be as bad as they’re saying, but I said that with Sandy, too,” said Lavel Samuels, 42, as she filled her tank in Queens. “I’m filling up based on my experience with Sandy, in case there’s no gas on Sunday or Monday.”
That grim mood contrasted sharply with a more playful sense among some in New England, where the prospect of new snow thrilled skiers who have bemoaned almost two seasons of barren slopes.
“These aren’t flakes falling from the sky, these are dollar bills,” said Ed Carrier as he sat in a coffee shop in Portsmouth, N.H., and envisioned the boon for winter sports. Staff at the Thirsty Moose Taphouse nearby said they are determined to stay open until their regular closing time at 1 a.m. (except in the case of a power failure), and even offered storm-related drink specials: $3 porters and stouts, as long as it was snowing. “It’s just a little bit of snow,” said the hostess, Kim Lovely. “Mother Nature’s just brushing out her dandruff.”
But in most cities and towns, Friday was largely a day of preparation for the worst. With hurricane-force winds, the Weather Service expects flooding along the Atlantic coast that could affect up to 8 million people.
Already by evening, thousands of power failures had been reported across Massachusetts, and utility officials, beleaguered by criticism of their performances in previous storms, were girding for more extensive disruptions in service: Predicted winds up to 75 mph would likely topple trees and take down more power lines, officials said. Marcy Reed, president of National Grid, said power failures could last several days because repairs would not begin until the storm ended and would require unearthing power lines buried under mounds of snow.
In Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick took the unusual step of ordering all vehicles off all roads, not just state roads, by 4 p.m. Friday, well before the brunt of the storm had hit. Violators could face up to a year in prison and a fine, though exceptions were made for emergency workers, members of the media and anyone with a snowplow.
“Two or 3 feet of snow is a profoundly different kind of storm than we have dealt with,” the governor said from the state’s emergency bunker in Framingham. Officials recalled only one previous such traffic ban, in the aftermath of the Blizzard of 1978, when more than 27 inches of snow paralyzed the region, forcing people to abandon their cars in the middle of roadways.
Maine declared a partial emergency, allowing it to suspend federal transportation rules, extend worker hours and bring in extra crews from Canada to assist with storm damage repair.
Thousands of flights were grounded Friday, and thousands more were expected to be suspended through the weekend.
Boston’s transit system, including subway, buses and commuter rail lines, suspended service at 3:30 p.m., allowing first-shift workers to get home and second-shift workers to get to work. The city inaugurated its SnowOps Viewer, an online portal that allows viewers to see where all snowplows are in real time.
In New York City, transit officials announced increased bus and train service in the afternoon to help commuters beat the worst of the storm.But New Jersey transit suspended most of its commuter trains and bus service by 8 p.m. Amtrak suspended northbound service out of New York early Friday afternoon and southbound service out of Boston. Schools throughout New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island either closed or sent students home early.
New York City was battered by a sloshy mix of rain, snow and sleet, all of which was expected to turn back into snow by early evening, said Tim Morrin, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service based in Long Island.
“From then things go downhill pretty quickly,” he said, adding that the winds would pick up, and snow would fall more heavily.
By today, the snowfall in New York City is expected to be between 10 inches and 14 inches. In Long Island, the snow totals will range from 14 inches to 18 inches, with the highest amounts at the east end.
In New London, Conn., there will most likely be more than 24 inches of snow and even more in Boston, which could break modern records by topping 28 inches.
Jerome Hauer, the New York state commissioner of the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, said that coastal areas of Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island could experience flooding. and residents should be prepared to seek alternative shelter. While the storm surge is expected to be only 3 feet to 5 feet - well below the14-foot surge that Sandy delivered - he said large waves could send water inland.
“If you see flooding, have plans for somewhere to go,” Hauer said.
For many in New York and New Jersey, the memory of the gas shortages and prolonged power failures that followed Sandy are still vivid, and they were taking no chances.
At Brewer’s Hardware in Mamaroneck, N.Y., Anthony Lividini, the manager, said he was selling far more blizzard and power-failure supplies, including generators, than he had in the past.
“People are getting nervous and coming out early because after Sandy they were unable to get supplies,” he said.
Some stations were already reporting Friday that they had run out of fuel.
At a Shell station in Manhattan, some motorists also filled red spare gas cans in their trunks for generators they bought to survive the post-hurricane power failures.
By noon Friday, some stations on Long Island and in New Jersey reported they had run out of gas. At a Shell station in Jericho, N.Y., Andy Harris, the station owner, said he had sold more than 12,000 gallons of gas in the past 24 hours - more than double his usual sales.
He said he expected to run out of gas by midafternoon: “We’re seeing tremendous panic buying because superstorm Sandy is on everybody’s minds.” Information for this article was contributed by Joe Berger, Jess Bidgood, Christine Hauser,Winnie Hu,Andy Newman, Marc Santora and Nate Schweber of The New York Times and by Jay Lindsay, Denise Lavoie, Rodrique Ngowi, John Christoffersen and Bob Salsberg of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/09/2013