Plodding storm packing snow, rain slams Northeast; winds blamed for NH hotel fire’s spread

Snow, rain hit Northeast; winds fan NH hotel fire

PHILADELPHIA — A winter storm plodded up the Atlantic coast on Friday, delivering in the Northeast a powerful dose of wet snow, heavy rain with flooding potential and damaging winds that firefighters said fanned the flames of a blaze that engulfed an entire block of businesses in New Hampshire.

Winds in the Northeast were near 50 mph as utility companies prepped for possible widespread power outages due to toppled trees and near-blizzard conditions.

In Hampton, N.H., winds helped spread a fire that started in an unoccupied oceanfront hotel, damaging another six to eight businesses, including a restaurant and a games arcade, fire Capt. David Lang said. No injuries were reported, and no cause had been identified.

One day after sections of northeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Maine dealt with upward of 20 inches of snow and portions of northern New England weathered heavy rains that pushed some rivers toward flood levels, more of the same was forecast throughout Friday. The latest winter storm was packing heavy snow that could dump a foot or more in some areas and powerful, potentially damaging winds that could cause power outages and complicate any cleanup.

The National Weather Service said a potent area of low pressure was expected to linger off Long Island on Friday before drifting slowly north toward southern New England and weakening on Saturday.

The slow-moving storm by Friday morning had dumped about 10 inches of snow in New York City, where a man was killed by a falling snow-laden tree branch in Central Park — one of at least three deaths being blamed on the storm.

In northeastern Pennsylvania, National Guard forces rescued dozens of high school students on a ski trip in Susquehanna County when their buses got stuck on Route 374. A Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency spokesman said the 70 students and chaperones were taken to a Red Cross center in Uniondale, and no injuries were reported.

Nearly 20 inches of snow blanketed Pocono Summit, in the northeastern part of the state, while farther south, Philadelphia received just a dusting from the first day of the double-barreled storm. Up to 12 more inches was expected in the city, which has endured it’s snowiest winter, with more than 70 inches.

In western Pennsylvania, a peak wind gust of 56 mph was reported.

A fraction 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.

Parts of western Maine received nearly a foot a snow, while southern and mid-coastal sections of the state received more than 3 inches of rain and faced up to 7 more inches. The Presumpscot River in Westbrook was expected to crest at 9 feet over flood stage by Friday afternoon.

Several major roads were closed in the flood-prone New Hampshire town of Goffstown, police said, and slight flooding along the Piscataquog River had water creeping toward nearby houses. Residents were told to prepare for possible evacuation.

In New Jersey, the snow totals ranged from about 3 inches in Atlantic City to 18 inches in Passaic and Sussex counties in northern New Jersey, which could get up to 2 feet of snow before the sky clears on Saturday.

A day after airlines canceled hundreds of flights across the Northeast, the real threat was expected to be the strong wind that could create blizzard conditions.

The National Weather Service put much of the East Coast under wind advisories and warnings into 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.

“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.

Coastal New England was seeing mostly rain and was under coastal flood watches.

In upstate New York, residents dealt with a second day of the protracted storm, which pounded the area with up to 2 feet of snow. More than 79,000 utility customers were without power early Friday, most in the Hudson Valley. State police reported two deaths in traffic accidents on slick roads Thursday, one near Rochester and another southeast of Syracuse.

Vermont had more than 10,000 outages. Nearly 5,000 utility customers in New Jersey were without electricity, and there were scattered outages throughout Pennsylvania.

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Michael Rubinkam in Allentown, Pa., and George Walsh in Albany, N.Y., and AP Airlines Writer Joshua Freed in Minneapolis.