In preparation for the storm, Gov. Bill Haslam declared a state of emergency as of 3 p.m. Thursday for the entire state. He warned of travel disruptions and power outages.
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American Airlines is canceling the bulk of its flights in the Northeast ahead of a substantial winter storm, and says it’s also grounding flights at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
Quentin Norman, a manager at a gas station and convenience store in Capitol Heights, Maryland, just outside Washington, said his commute home Wednesday took an hour instead of the usual 15 minutes.
“We’re bracing for the first big storm of the winter”.
“Everybody was talking about the weekend”, he said, and assumed Wednesday’s weather would just breeze through. But some elevated roads, ramps and side streets were icy with drivers inching along. Major delays continued through the night on the Capital Beltway in Prince George’s County, but crews were making progress Thursday morning, he said. “That kept a lot of people off the roads”. It could exceed two inches of accumulation-per-hour at times.
Amtrak canceled several national services for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, including Crescent service from New York to New Orleans, Cardinal service from New York to Chicago and Silver Meteor service from New York to Miami.
With authorities warning the storm could bury Washington under more snow than it has seen in almost a century, officials announced they would take the unusual step of closing down the city’s rail and bus system from Friday night until Monday morning.
The director of the National Weather Service said all the ingredients have come together to create blizzards with brutally high winds, risky inland flooding, white-out conditions and even the possibility of thunder snow, when lightning strikes through a snowstorm.
Bruce Sullivan, senior forecaster for the National Weather Service, says Baltimore and Washington are likely in the “sweet spot” for a potentially paralyzing winter storm and life-threatening blizzard conditions. “We can move the snow”. This means that “severe winter weather conditions” – falling and blowing snow, strong winds and whiteout conditions – “are expected or occurring”.
The Metro system – the second busiest in the United States after NY – serves about 700,000 customers a day in Washington, Maryland and Virginia. The watches start as early as Thursday and stretch into Saturday. “Subtle changes can make a big difference”.
That could put this snowstorm near the top 10 to hit the East, with the weekend timing and days of warning helping to limit deaths and damage, said Kocin, who compared it to “Snowmageddon”, the first of two storms that “wiped out” Washington in 2010 and dumped up to 30 inches of snow in places. South and west of the city will be higher and be in excess of a foot.
Schools across these States have been closed as a precautionary measure, so has been a large number of offices and public transportation services.
The Virginia National Guard said it planned to bring in up to 300 troops to assist in response operations.
More than a foot and a half of snow is expected in the mountains.
Arlington County officials said the region “underestimated” the storm and it was a “scary and frustrating night” for residents.
“We’ve used virtually no salt”, so far this season, he said.
For Cape May, in southern New Jersey, this storm’s coastal flooding could be the worst ever recorded, eclipsing Hurricane Sandy.
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The storm is expected to miss northern New England.
