New England digs out after blizzard wreaks snow, floods and power cuts

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/28/new-england-digs-snow-blizzard-floods-power

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New England on Wednesday started its first day of digging out following a powerful winter storm that dumped 3ft of snow, flooded and froze coastal streets, played havoc with travel and cut electricity to thousands.

As they did so, forecasters said two more rounds of snow could be on the way this weekend – Frank Nocera, senior meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Taunton, told the Associated Press a fast-moving Friday storm could bring 2in to 4in more snow and strong wind gusts to some areas around Boston.

Another storm could bring snow, or snow turning into rain, from Sunday night into Monday morning in Massachusetts.

“Neither storm will be close in magnitude to the one we just had, but there’s really no place to put additional snow,” Nocera said. “Even 2in to 4in will be an inconvenience.”

Auburn, Hudson and Lunenburg in central Massachusetts all received 3ft of snow between Monday and Tuesday evening. Towns in southern New Hampshire and Maine trailed close behind, with 33in in Nashua and 27in in Lewiston, Maine. In Boston, train services and flights lurched back to normalcy with cancellations and delays.

More than 600 flights were canceled on Wednesday as airlines attempted to catch up with the nearly 7,700 flights that were canceled on the first two days of the week.

Good morning Juno you sure have challenged @nationalgridus on N Beach St #Nantucket #AckJuno @InkyM pic.twitter.com/A8LgfaXdd9

“Cancellations are obviously way down from yesterday so most [airports] are functioning, up and running,” said Melanie Hinton, a spokeswoman for Airlines for America, an airline industry association. “Boston will still experience some delays and cancellations.” New York airports were accepting all incoming flights, though there were still some outbound delays, she said.

Areas of central and eastern Massachusetts were still recovering power, with minor outages in Maine and southern New Hampshire as of Wednesday morning. Governors in the latter two states urged residents to check on neighbors and avoid driving.

On Nantucket, 4,500 people were without power on Wednesday morning, accounting for more than a third of the island’s population. The beach town typically associated with northern summer vacations was pummelled with snow, floods and winds of up to 78mph – the storm’s highest recorded gust.

The utility providing electricity, National Grid, estimated that 50 crews working on the island would have power back up by midnight.

“Not that I’m counting the minutes, but they should be here in 52 minutes,” said Nantucket chief William Pittman, at about 10am. “The worst impact we had was the interruption of electrical power and the damage it did to the electric grid.”

Pittman said several streets were flooded and frozen, trapping vehicles in ice. The disruption in electric service could cause ongoing problems, as National Grid will have to individually re-energize homes invaded by salt water during the storm.

Without electricity to energize furnaces and boilers (which are typically controlled by electric thermostats), some houses could have bursts pipes, causing thousands of dollars in further damage that may not be found until vacationers visit their homes in the spring.

Several coastal towns in Massachusetts suffered similar damage, as rising tides and storm surge breached sea walls and eroded beaches, sending salt water into oceanside streets.

The disruptive system was moving slowly northward toward Nova Scotia, Canada, according to the National Weather Service. Weather warnings for New England were lifted on Tuesday.