Travelers, shoppers see frightful weather across East Coast ahead of Christmas

By Sarah Karush, AP
Saturday, December 19, 2009

Treacherous snow storm strikes East Coast

WASHINGTON — A treacherous, frightful wintry storm slammed the East Coast on Saturday and dumped more than a foot of snow in some areas, hampering travelers and shoppers on the weekend before Christmas.

Forecasts called for up to 20 inches of snow across the region, including Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and reaching up to New York. About 16 inches fell west of Charlottesville, Va., and 8 to 12 inches had already fallen in the nation’s capital, the National Weather Service said.

Snowplows cleared the runway at Andrews Air Force Base in suburban Washington as President Barack Obama returned from climate talks in Copenhagen. The White House said Obama rode in a motorcade back to the White House, instead of taking his helicopter, because of the conditions. Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty had declared a snow emergency for the city and forecasters warned the conditions could worsen.

“It’s going to be an all day thing. It’s going to be on and off,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Kevin Witt in Sterling, Va.

Philadelphia also declared a snow emergency and the school district canceled all weekend activities. The storm was coating streets and highways in Philadelphia and the rest of southeastern Pennsylvania.

Forecasters said the storm system was expected to generate winds up to 35 miles per hour, which could cause near-whiteout conditions. Authorities in many areas asked drivers to stay off the road if possible.

People stocked up on groceries and other staples Friday after the National Weather Service issued storm warnings from the Carolinas to Rhode Island. In southern West Virginia, Ron Hart’s hardware store was swamped as customers bought heaters and other emergency supplies, just a week after a wind storm knocked out electricity and spawned an earlier emergency shopping surge.

“People are having to spend money on bare essentials versus Christmas,” Hart said. “Our Christmas sales are considerably down because of what people are having to buy.”

Forecasters said it could be the most snow in the nation’s capital since a February 2003 storm dumped nearly 27 inches at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

“It is strong, it’s potent and it’s going to take a while to move off shore,” Witt said of the slow-moving storm.

Officials at Dulles International and Reagan National airports warned travelers to check on the status of their flights before heading to the airports. Many Saturday flights along the East coast were canceled, and excessive delays were reported at airports in the Washington, D.C. area.

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm. State Police responded to hundreds of accidents statewide as snow accumulated on interstates and rural roads.

Snow, ice and freezing rain socked western North Carolina on Friday, knocking out power to almost 60,000 customers around the Asheville area.

Jim Weintraub, owner of Ace Hardware in Asheville, N.C., said he picked up 1,500 pounds of rock salt Friday morning. An hour and a half later, “I’m just about out,” he said.

But customers were thinking fun, too.

“I’ve been told we’re the only store around with sleds,” Weintraub said. “As I was driving back up to the store, my wife was calling me and saying, ‘Where are you? People are waiting for sleds!’”

After a warm start to the ski season that delayed openings of many resorts, the storm arrived just in time for Winterplace Ski Resort’s season debut Friday in southern West Virginia.

“It’s perfect timing,” said Winterplace President Terry Pfeiffer. “With the new snow coming in, there’s not going to be much better skiing.”

The Coast Guard sent an airplane to fly from North Carolina to New Jersey warning boaters by radio to stay in port if they didn’t have an urgent need to be on the water.

Highway crews in Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia were spraying brine on heavily traveled roads to help prevent snow and ice from sticking.

Amtrak spokeswoman Karina Romero said the railway was putting extra crews on duty, in part to keep ice from forming on the overhead lines that power electric trains. Extra locomotives equipped with snow plows would also be available.

The storm came from the Gulf and drenched South Florida with rain starting late Thursday, leaving flooded homes and stranded drivers.

Associated Press Writers Alysia Patterson in Raleigh, N.C., Suzette Laboy in Miami, Alex Dominguez in Baltimore and Jessica Gresko in Washington contributed to this report.

Discussion

yerwerdz
December 19, 2009: 5:00 pm

COPENHAGEN [AP] – Shocked and shaken by the theft of the Auschwitz sign, the world community must now “take note” of another midnight action. This time its a deal brokered by US President Barack Obama at the largest and most important U.N. meeting ever on fighting global warming. The new deal, which abandons the most vulnerable of nations along with the world’s biologically rich tropical forests, continues a pattern of what international representatives call a “real lack of transparency” by the White House. Obama dismissed the UN’s criticisms of his unusual and undemocratic negotiating process as “cynicism” while declaring his unbinding document an “unprecedented breakthrough”. Obama’s document promises to funnel up to $100B a year through the UN Development Programme, widely known for its corruption. “The deal is a triumph of spin over substance,” said Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of Oxfam International, it “kicks back” on the issue of “climate cash”. Like the Nazis sending “6 million people into furnaces” in the Holocaust, Obama is condemning the world to wide-spread global warming deaths, other leaders pointed out. Meanwhile, outside in the cold, hundreds of European protesters chanted and carried signs of Obama with the word “shame” pasted on his face.

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