From Washington to Boston, from Pennsylvania to Maine, tens of millions of residents had been placed on alert faced with this snowy episode accompanied by squalls of up to 80 km / h. At 7 p.m. local time on Monday, the snow cover had reached more than 41 cm in Central Park, according to the National Weather Service.
New snowfall is expected on Tuesday in the northeast region, with conditions close to blizzard, tweeted the NHS. ” It should be one of the biggest snowfalls in New York City Said Matthew Wunsch, an NHS forecaster.
According to data collected since 1869 in Central Park, a layer of more than 50 cm in total would rise in the eight snowiest episodes recorded in New York. The record dates from January 2016, with nearly 70 cm fallen in three days. Some evoked the ” big blizzard »History of March 1888: the city, taken by surprise in early spring, had then deplored dozens of deaths and considerable material damage.
The mayor, Bill de Blasio, declared a local state of emergency in order to facilitate the maneuvers of the clearing machines, omnipresent on the main roads. It closed until Tuesday including the schools that remained open despite the pandemic – mainly preschools and elementary schools – sending all students back to online education.
While many employees have been working from home for months, the eight million residents were asked to stay at home. Spreaders and snowplows plied the streets of New York, already quieter than usual due to the pandemic.
Vaccination centers closed and flights disrupted
The anti-Covid-19 vaccination centers, which operate only by appointment – very difficult to get hold of due to the lack of sufficient vaccines – were also closed until Tuesday included.
Almost all flights to or from the three airports that serve the region, John F. Kennedy, La Guardia and Newark, have been canceled, said one of their managers, Rick Cotton. In Boston, half of the flights scheduled to take off on Monday were canceled, according to the site Flight Aware. Across the country, more than 1,600 flights had been canceled Monday at midday.
No doubt due to the activity slowed down by the coronavirus, no serious accident in the metropolitan areas concerned was immediately reported. But in the suburb of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, a couple in their fifties was shot dead by their neighbor after ” an altercation regarding snow removal In front of their house, said Dale Binker, police chief of Plains Township. The shooter took his own life as police arrived to arrest him, he added.
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