Lethal blizzard buries Northeast

BOSTON — A howling blizzard slammed the Northeast yesterday with more than 2 feet of snow and hurricane-strength wind gusts, halting air travel for thousands of people, keeping others off slippery highways and burying parked cars under deep drifts.

Governors in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island declared states of emergency.

More than 3 feet of snow fell north of Boston, parts of New Hampshire got 2 feet, New York's Catskills collected at least 20 inches and 18 inches fell on parts of Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island and the eastern tip of New York's Long Island.

Two communities in Massachusetts, Salem and Plymouth, tied for the deepest snow with 38 inches each, according to the National Weather Service.

The weather system had earlier piled a foot of snow across parts of Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and northern Ohio.

Although the snow ended by yesterday afternoon, temperatures were expected to reach zero in some areas last night, with wind chills dropping as low as minus 15. The wind was fierce across much of the East Coast, with a top wind gust of 152 mph recorded on Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina.

MICHAEL DWYER / AP Scott Mangino clears snow from the sidewalk in front of his Boston residence yesterday. Governors in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island declared states of emergency.

At least 14 deaths were linked to the weather: three in Connecticut, three in Ohio, three in Wisconsin, two in Pennsylvania, and one each in Maryland, Iowa or Massachusetts.

Wind gusted to 84 mph on Nantucket, and the entire island off the southeastern coast of Massachusetts was plunged into darkness yesterday as 9,400 utility customers lost power. On the mainland, about 18,000 customers lost power, the utility NStar said. Smaller outages were reported elsewhere around the Northeast.

Elise DelBarone, a spokeswoman for Massachusetts Electric, said power on Nantucket was nearly restored yesterday afternoon when a problem with the undersea cable was fixed.

Still, officials said up to 100 residents were staying at a shelter set up at a high school. Rescue crews also were trying to reach people at risk in outlying areas cut off by snow drifts up to 6 feet high.

Because the wind blowing off the ocean coincided with a full moon and high tide, coastal communities were warned of flooding.

"There's a lot of self-evacuations going on. People simply got out of Dodge," said Peter Judge, spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. National Guard troops helped evacuate part of Scituate, 20 miles south of Boston, but morning high tide receded without significant flooding, he said.

Today's classes were called off for many Massachusetts schools, and Gov. Mitt Romney asked nonessential state workers in the eastern part of the state not to come to work.

As state and city officials urged residents to stay off the roads, many people tried to take the storm in stride.

Bill Bush, 32, waded through drifts across the deserted Boston Common to pick up some things at his office for a trip today, then headed home for the AFC Championship football game between the New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

"I figured it's early and it's nice to get out to see the snow before everyone dirtied it up," he said.

For others, towering snowdrifts and whiteout conditions wiped out travel plans.

Boston's Logan International Airport closed early yesterday because snowplow crews couldn't keep up with the blinding snow.

More than 900 flights were canceled yesterday morning at the New York metropolitan area's Newark, Kennedy and LaGuardia airports, in addition to about 700 that were grounded Saturday, Port Authority officials said.

Philadelphia's airport was open again yesterday, after flight cancellations on Saturday stranded hundreds of travelers at the terminal overnight.

For others, the storm brought ideal conditions for skiing, snowboarding and sledding.

"Once everyone shovels out, we're going to have a great day, a record breaker," said Rod Taylor, owner of Woodbury Ski Area in Woodbury, Conn. "People see the snow and they get excited."