By Ellen Wulfhorst
 NEW
YORK (Reuters) - New Yorkers awoke to find themselves under a
blanket of snow on Saturday, as the season's first major storm
skirted the nation's capital but left accumulations of several
inches around the U.S. northeast with more predicted throughout
the day.
Heavy snow
began to fall early in the morning along the Eastern Seaboard,
leaving six inches of snow in New York City's Central Park by
late morning, the National Weather Service said.
The storm
was moving north, hitting Philadelphia and New York City and expected
to hit New England hard later in the day, forecasters said.
``It developed
with a vengeance,'' said Mike Wyllie, a spokesman for the National
Weather Service in Brookhaven, N.Y.
``We've got
a couple of inches on the east end of Long Island (New York) to
over nine inches at the west end, and six inches in New York City,''
he said.
``The city
will have 10 to 16 inches, while Connecticut and western Massachusetts
will get over a foot, easy,'' he added. ''It's a major storm.''
LaGuardia
and Newark International airport were closed while Kennedy only
has one runway open.
Even before
the airports closed, American Airlines canceled all their flights
at Kennedy, and many of their flights at LaGuardia, said Alan
Hicks, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New
Jersey which oversees the area's airports.
Delta had
canceled all its flights into New York airports until noon Saturday,
according to a taped message from a spokeswoman.
And Trans Word Airlines had also canceled all its flights into
LaGuardia and JFK airports.
``We already
have 7 inches of snow,'' said TWA spokeswoman Julia Bishop. ``The
storm came earlier than we expected.''
TWA also grounded
all its flights at the three major Washington airports because
of predictions of heavy snowfall. Washington got no snow and flights
were expected to resume at 6 p.m., said Bishop
``It was forecast
to be a lot of snow,'' the spokeswoman said. ''So in anticipation
of the snow, we canceled the flights for today.''
Advance word
of the coming storm meant that many would-be travelers stayed
home rather than head to the airports.
``The word
has gotten out that people can call ahead, and most people have
done that,'' Hicks said.
Employees
at New York's regional airports were armed with new high-speed
plows and snow melters, while in the city, workers were ready
with 1,400 snowplows and 353 salt-spreading machines.
The storm
had been expected to land earlier in Washington, D.C., but skirted
the nation's capital on its way north.
|
