Utilities, airlines brace for high winds as new storm bears down on weary Northeast

Wind could be the real concern in snowy Northeast

PHILADELPHIA — Another big, powerful snowstorm barreled into the winter-weary Northeast on Thursday, disrupting flights, closing schools and threatening high winds late in the day that could team up with the wet, heavy snow to topple trees and power lines.

The storm was expected to drop at least 8 inches of snow over much of the region and linger more than 24 hours, meaning more headaches Friday. More snow is predicted for much of the region Saturday, too.

The National Weather Service put much of the East Coast under wind advisories and warnings from 4 p.m. Thursday until as late as 7 a.m. Friday. The agency warned that winds could blow steadily between 20 and 30 mph in some areas, with gusts of 55 mph or higher in coastal and mountainous areas.

Even coastal New England, which was seeing rain but nothing like the 18 inches of snow expected in some parts of northern New Jersey and upstate New York, was under coastal flood watches because of the wind.

By late morning, the weather service station in Mount Holly, N.J., reported the strongest scattered gusts so far — a not-so-damaging 25 mph — with snow totals in the 2-inch range.

While forecasters can predict the snow totals and what that will mean — slippery roads, a snow day for the kids — it’s trickier to know whether winds might create havoc.

“Your tree may fall down; your neighbor’s may not,” said Kristina Pydynowski, a meteorologist for AccuWeather, a private forecasting company in State College, Pa.

She said dense, wet snow weighing down trees would make it more likely for strong winds to knock them down. And power will probably be hardest to restore in areas where heavy snow keeps repair crews at bay.

In upstate New York, the dangers are well understood.

In a storm hit the area with up to 2 feet of snow on Wednesday, some 150,000 homes and businesses lost power. By late Thursday morning, 60,000 customers were still without power, mostly in the Hudson Valley and the Catskills.

A pair of blizzards this month in New Jersey each knocked out 80,000 to 90,000 customers, mostly on the shore. Public Service Electric and Gas Co. in New Jersey had extra crews and supplies ready in case power lines start coming down this week.

The fifth of an inch of snow that fell in Pittsburgh by early afternoon Thursday was enough to break the city’s record for the snowiest month since recordkeeping began in 1884.

Winter storm warnings stretched into Ohio and along much of the Appalachian Mountains, with snow and wind expected as far south as the Tennessee-North Carolina line.

In snow-weary Philadelphia, this winter had set a seasonal record of more than 70 inches of snow even before the first flakes fell Thursday. The city and New Jersey had only recently finished cleaning up from the two blizzards that deposited more than 3 feet of snow a few weeks ago.

Airlines canceled hundreds of flights in the New York City area and Philadelphia. Continental Airlines canceled 70 of its 200 flights at the major international airport in Newark, N.J., as well as all 200 flights planned by regional partners.

Officials at Philadelphia International Airport said nearly one-fifth of the flights scheduled there for the day had been scratched. The predictions of strong winds later in the day were the main reason, said airport spokeswoman Victoria Lupica.

Thousands of schools across the region either closed or planned to let out early, and New York State Police attributed traffic deaths to the weather.

In Allentown, Pa., 52-year-old Jim Yourgal put on knee-high snow boots and trudged three miles to his job as a valet at an orthopedic center. He figured he wouldn’t be driving home in a foot of snow. His dedication was no big deal, he said.

“What else am I going to do, read a book at home? I can do that on the weekend,” he said.

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Michael Rubinkam in Allentown, Pa., Randy Pennell and Joann Loviglio in Philadelphia, George Walsh in Albany, N.Y., Shawn Marsh in Trenton, N.J., and Kiley Armstrong and Ula Ilnytzky in New York City, along with AP Airlines Writer Joshua Freed in Minneapolis.