Life disrupted as 3rd snow storm lashes New England, 1.5k flights cancelled

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

New England on Tuesday was lashed by the third winter storm in two weeks. The storm deposited up to 20 inches (51 cm) of snow causing school closures, flight cancellations and raising the risk of power outages.

 
The nor’easter follows two storms that rumbled up the East Coast earlier this month, killing at least nine people and knocking out power to about 2.4 million people and businesses at their peak.

 
Close to 1,500 U.S. flights were cancelled with the hardest-hit airport Boston Logan, where about four out of five flights were called off, according to tracking service FlightAware.

 
The storm covered an area from New York State across Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine, with national forecasters warning of blizzard conditions, where high winds make travel dangerous, stretching from coastal Massachusetts through Maine.

 
“We’re anticipating that we’ll be seeing through the mid- to late morning and probably into midafternoon snowfall rates of one to three inches per hour (up to 7.6cm),” said Bob Thompson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton, Massachusetts.

He warned that further power outages were likely in southeastern Massachusetts.

 
Schools in Boston and Providence, Rhode Island, were shut on Tuesday, Maine’s state legislature canceled its session, Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy closed all government offices and the passenger rail line Amtrak halted service between Boston and New York.

 
This storm’s heavy snow could down trees weakened by the last two storms and bring a fresh wave of power outages, officials warned.

 
Lower tides meant the storm would probably not bring a repeat of the flooding that sent icy water pouring into the streets of Boston during a storm early this month, forecasters and officials said.

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