Wednesday was a day for digging out in New England. But forecasters are warning more snow might be on the way.
To be sure, it will be nothing compared to what has already fallen this week. Worcester, Massachusetts, received a record 34.5 inches from Monday through Wednesday.
“There’s so much of it, you have a problem because there’s just nothing to do with it,” a resident told CNN affiliate WHDH.
He compared it with a blizzard in 1978 and a storm in 2013.
“This is much worse,” he said. “It just never stopped.”
For many people in New England this blizzard brought whiteout conditions from heavy snow and wind greater than 35 mph for as long as 14 hours. In towns and cities from Connecticut to Massachusetts to New Hampshire there were plenty of folks who were digging through more than 30 inches of fresh snow on sidewalks and driveways.
Homeowners weren’t just dealing with the question of where to put all the snow. Some had to call their insurance agents, like residents of 11 homes in Marshfield, Massachusetts, where there was significant damage after a seawall breach.
After deserting the streets Tuesday as the storm struck, traffic moved again along major roads in Massachusetts and beyond. Boston’s Logan International Airport accepted incoming flights around 8 a.m., according to spokesman Matthew Brelis. Buses and trains in Massachusetts — including the Boston-area subway system, the “T” — ran again, with major roads reopened as well, said incoming state Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack.
But schools in Boston were closed, as they will be Thursday. The National Weather Service said Wednesday that another system is moving toward the area and several more inches of snow could come down Thursday night into Friday night. The high on Saturday is forecast to be 16 degrees.
CNN senior meteorologist Dave Hennen said as the low pressure develops off the coast, damaging winds might yet again be in store for New England on Friday and Saturday.
A harsh reality for those hit by feet of snow
If anyone has a right to complain, it was those digging out Wednesday not just in New England but also on New York’s Long Island.
The weather service reported that Orient on the tip of Long Island, ended up with 30 inches of snow. That’s about 10 inches more than fell across Long Island Sound in New London, Connecticut, though Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio noted that his city has up to 8-foot drifts and some roads that were still impassable Wednesday morning.
“We’re getting there,” said Finizio. “But it will be another day or two digging out from this. This isn’t going anywhere.”
“There are still a few dead ends that we still need to punch through to get to, to make sure that people can get out of their houses,” the mayor said.
One good thing: Because it was colder than expected, most of the snow didn’t weigh enough to snap too many limbs down onto too many power lines. So instead of 300,000 power outages in Massachusetts, as authorities had feared, the number topped out at 36,000, according to Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency spokesman Peter Judge.
“Although we may end up with record snow, it’s not going to be a record disaster, which it could have very well been,” Judge said.
Blizzard babies born
Still, any outage can be deadly in a winter storm like this. And at one point an entire island, Nantucket, was in the dark.
Four hours after the power went out, Danielle Smith gave birth to her first child at Nantucket Cottage Hospital — with a few lights on and some heat, thanks to the facility’s generator.
“And Danielle is a superstar,” said Dr. Margaret Koehm, who noted that a “blizzard girl” joined Smith’s “blizzard boy,” Cayden, a short time later at the same hospital. “She did it all naturally.”
In central Connecticut, Heather Klein felt her contractions coming on overnight Monday. After getting the OK from Hartford police to break the travel ban, she drove in and settled into the hospital in time for the birth of her baby, Anna.
Mom and baby had plenty of quality time together Tuesday, since visitors couldn’t hit the roads to come see them.
“It’s so boring,” Klein said. “I can’t wait to go home.”
Homes destroyed in coastal town
For Jennifer Bruno, there’s no going home.
The Iraq war veteran had evacuated to a friend’s house overnight, knowing that things might not be safe in her own home of Marshfield, a town of 25,000 located 30 miles south of Boston.
When she got back home, the National Guard sergeant broke down in tears.
“Part of the roof collapsed, the wall, my door was missing,” Bruno said of her house. “It was just destroyed.”
She wasn’t alone, as 10 other homes in the same seaside town were also damaged after the powerful storm tore down about 50 feet of seawall. Two of the houses were damaged badly enough to be condemned.
There was significant flooding there and in other coastal communities around Massachusetts, which had to deal not only with storm surges but lashing winds that in some places topped 75 mph.
Even so, there is also recognition that — for the vast majority of the 58 million people in the storm’s path, especially given the dire warnings — it could have been even worse.
“Despite the fact that we had record-breaking snowfall in many parts of Massachusetts,” Gov. Charlie Baker said Wednesday, “we have come out of this, I think, in relatively good shape.”
