New York will resume its covid vaccination and face-to-face classes at the school on Wednesday, suspended due to a gigantic winter storm that continues to hit the northeast of the country on Tuesday and has already left more than 17 inches of snow in the city.
“Expect large to extreme impacts across the region from Pennsylvania to Maine, including in the Philadelphia, New York and Boston metropolitan areas,” the National Weather Service (NWS) said in a statement Tuesday.
In Central Park the snowfall was 43.7 cm at 07:00 local time, the 16th largest in history according to records started in 1869, when it was expected to be one of the 10 largest and exceed 50 cm.
After stopping in the morning, the snow started falling again at noon Tuesday, and forecasters estimate that New York may still receive an additional two inches of snow.
The state of emergency in the city ended this Tuesday at 06:00 local time, and metropolitan trains returned to circulate through the largest American city, although schools remain closed until Wednesday.
Restaurants may also reopen to the public on Wednesday, but only for meals at tables set up outside.
After two days of suspension in vaccination against the virus, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that appointments will be rescheduled and the delay will be recovered “very quickly.”
The heaviest snowfall in the Northeast was in Montague, NJ, where it snowed 84 cm. In some places it snowed up to 7.6 cm per hour.
Unlike those of previous storms, the toll of victims has been limited. A man was found dead in a park in Newark, New Jersey, and a woman with Alzheimer’s died of the cold in Allentown, Pennsylvania, after leaving her home.
In a suburb of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, a couple in their 50s who were sweeping the snow from the front of their house were killed by a neighbor after an argument. The perpetrator committed suicide as the police were preparing to arrest him.
“We are much better prepared for blizzards than before. We now have the blizzard of the century twice a year, so we have more equipment, more staff, more sophistication,” said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
The storm is now heading toward northern New England, the NWS noted. In Maine it has already started to snow and about 38 cm of snow is expected.
lbc/mps
–
