About 2,200 people were without power across the state, officials said.
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Two feet or more of snowfall is forecast for Washington and Baltimore, and almost as much for Philadelphia. Still, there are legitimate concerns that this storm will go above and beyond the norm in many ways – both in terms of what falls from the sky and how fast the wind blows, both of which could produce massive power outages.
“This has life-and-death implications and all the residents of the District of Columbia should treat it that way”, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said.
Sunday’s cancellations were low as of Friday afternoon but were expected “to grow significantly…likely as a result of aircraft and crews out of position from Saturday’s cancellations”, said FlightAware Chief Executive Daniel Baker.
Anyone trying to travel in this mess risks getting stuck for hours, marooned in odd places, or killed, authorities warned. Her husband survived after climbing for hours up a 300-foot embankment.
In Kentucky, authorities have opened emergency shelters along a major interstate highway, where motorists have been stranded for at least 10 hours.
Conditions quickly became treacherous as the storm moved northeast.
And farther south, a mix of wintry precipitation is icing a swathe from eastern Arkansas through Tennessee, Kentucky, north Georgia and the Carolinas.
The worst of Jonas’ wrath could be felt in the Appalachian Mountains into the mid-Atlantic, according to National Weather Service forecasters on Friday morning.
The forecasters are calling for snowfall that will be measured in feet, gale force winds, coastal flooding and white-out conditions.
NWS director Louis Uccellini said Thursday the system had the potential to “affect over 50 million people”. “Except for extreme northern New Jersey, people need to be where they want to be at about six or seven o’clock tonight”.
WTNH News 8’s Meteorologist Gil Simmons wrote, “Snow will be picking up steadily through the morning”.
A thick layer of snow covered the Washington D.C. area on Saturday as a potentially record-setting blizzard arrived on the East Coast, paralyzing road, rail and airline travel from North Carolina to NY.
Fortunately, temperatures will be just above freezing after the storm passes in most places, and there’s no second storm lurking behind this one, making for a slow and steady melt and less likelihood of more ice and floods, Peterson said.
States of emergency have been declared in at least 10 states. Thousands of flights have been canceled, and officials are urging citizens to stay off the roads.
All major airlines have issued waivers for the weekend, allowing passengers to rebook onto earlier or later flights to avoid the storms. Nashville, Tennessee, was gridlocked by accidents.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, host to the NFC professional football championship on Sunday, the North Carolina Panther Pride parade was canceled. In Washington, Baltimore, and DE, archdioceses pre-emptively excused Catholics from showing up for Sunday Mass. Once it gets to the jet stream, “that’s when the firecracker goes off”.
As of Friday night, nine deaths had been tied to bad roads and ice, according to The New York Times.
“People are staying home and that is extremely important for our citizens”.
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Schools and government offices in Washington were all closed, with public transportation scheduled to shut down in the evening until early Monday.
