By GINA CAPPELLO, Associated Press Writer
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| Pedestrians Walk through the Falling Snow to Cross Broadway |
Blizzard-like
weather enveloped parts of the Northeast on Saturday, forcing
all of New York's airports to close and Philadelphia to declare
a snow emergency. Hundreds of flights were canceled, trains and
buses were ordered off the roads, and traffic on highways slowed
to a crawl as work crews struggled to keep up with nature's abundance.
Snow extended
from southern New Jersey to Maine, coating the region in ghostly
white. By midday, 13 inches had fallen in Middlesex County in
New Jersey and 11 inches in New York City.
"It's
going to be hard to keep pace with this," Bob Catene said
as he shoveled the walk in front of the Italian food store he
runs in Brooklyn. "After this one I'll be snowed out for
the rest of the season."
As he fought
to clear his walk, thunder crackled in the gray sky.
Others reveled
in the snow.
"There's
nothing quite like a walk in the morning with a new snow. The
world seems so pure, so beautiful," said Jeffrey Greene of
Merion, Pa.
Dale Livingston
of Montclair, N.J., a 58-year-old baritone, took a bus into New
York City so he could perform in the New York Philharmonic's sold-out
Beethoven 9th Symphony concert Saturday night.
"This
is a grand adventure," Livingston said as his bus skidded
sideways up a hill in Bloomfield, N.J. "When it is all over
it is going to be boring."
New York's
Kennedy Airport was down to one runway, then closed, joining La
Guardia and Newark airports. Philadelphia's airport was open but
airlines reported dozens of delays and cancellations. Amtrak canceled
its Metroliner service between New York and Washington.
In Philadelphia, Mayor John Street declared a snow emergency,
meaning only emergency vehicles are allowed downtown.
Some of the
East Coast escaped the brunt of the storm because it developed
farther north and east than forecast - by 10 a.m., the sky was
clear in Washington.
More than
1,300 plows were at work in New Jersey state highways alone, but
most remained snow-covered. Speeds were restricted to 35 mph on
the New Jersey Turnpike and Atlantic City Expressway.
Work crews
in several states had been put on standby for what could be the
area's heaviest snowfall since January 1996. That storm dumped
more than 20 inches of snow across parts of the East, including
New York and Pennsylvania.
"After
they said there was going to be a foot of snow, I came right out
to get eggs and milk," Jacqueline Logan of Harrisburg, Pa.,
said Friday as she added hot dogs, orange juice and toilet paper
to her shopping cart. "I just don't want to run out of anything."
In Philadelphia,
the Eagles were scrambling to rid Veterans Stadium of snow for
Sunday's playoff game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The team
borrowed field tarps and heaters from Three Rivers Stadium in
Pittsburgh to protect and dry the field. And the Meadowlands in
New Jersey sent large plastic chutes to help remove snow from
the stands.
In Somers
Point, N.J., Shore True Value Hardware sold all 300 shovels that
had been delivered the day before. Another delivery was expected,
and Austin Gibbons, 79, said he would be back. In the meantime,
he was headed to a liquor store: "I need a bottle of J&B.
That's going to hold me over."
Customers
at Pennington Market in Pennington, N.J., bought milk, bread and
soup - along with snacks and deli trays - to prepare for both
the storm and the New Year's weekend.
And shoppers
at Pelican Ski & Snowboard Shops in Morris Plains, N.J., grabbed
sleds along with snow boots and long johns.
Pelican Ski
store owner Ken Spilatro said sales have doubled in the past few
days, a welcome development after a stretch of warm winters. "We've
been waiting for this for a couple of years," he said.
Elsewhere,
people across the Plains continued to deal with the aftermath
of the storms that hit earlier in the week, killing at least 40
people. Electric workers fought bitter cold and ice for a fifth
day as they struggled to restore power to tens of thousands of
homes in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
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