PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A winter storm dumped heavy, wet snow on parts of the Northeast Tuesday, causing tens of thousands of power outages, widespread school closures, dangerous driving conditions and a plane skidding off a taxiway.
The storm's path included parts of New England, upstate New York, northeastern Pennsylvania, and northern New Jersey. Snow totals so far today were expected to range from a few inches to a few feet, depending on the area.
About 2 feet of snow fell in parts of northern New York and the Catskill Mountains, and Gov. Kathy Hochul said some areas could see additional snow by this morning. In New Hampshire, state police asked drivers to stay off the roads Tuesday afternoon due to whiteout conditions. State police said they had dealt with more than 120 accidents.
In Derry, NH, firefighters and police officers used chainsaws, shovels and their bare hands to rescue a girl trapped under a fallen tree. Authorities said the girl was playing outside near a parent who was clearing snow when the tree fell on her. The girl was taken to hospital with minor injuries.
All northbound lanes of Interstate 95 on the Piscataqua River Bridge between Maine and New Hampshire were closed after two tractor-trailers got stuck on the bridge due to ice.
In the Berkshires in western Massachusetts, heavy, wet snow made driving treacherous, weighing down tree limbs and causing several detours. Further east in Fitchburg, Mass., where up to 18 inches of snow was reported, Jean Guerrer said conditions were too dangerous to drive to his job as a Boston-based taxi driver.
A Delta Air Lines plane skidded off a paved surface while taxiing for takeoff from a Syracuse, New York, airport Tuesday morning. Flight 1718, which was bound for New York's LaGuardia Airport, skidded onto a grassy area north of the runway, forcing passengers to exit the plane and board buses back to the terminal, airport officials said. No one was injured and the airport remained open.
About 2,100 flights traveling to, from or within the U.S. were canceled on Tuesday, with airports in the Boston and New York areas having the highest number of flights not completed, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.
The storm closed state and local government offices in Maine, where snow arrived later in the day, and power outages increased Tuesday with more than 80,000 customers affected Tuesday night. About 70,000 customers were without power in New Hampshire.
The National Weather Service said in New York, 2 inches of snow per hour or more was falling at higher elevations in the eastern Catskills through the Hudson Valley, the central Taconics and the Berkshires. Heavy snow snapped tree limbs and downed power lines across the New York capital, with power outages affecting homes and businesses in the Albany area.
CALIFORNIA STORM
The latest powerful atmospheric river to sweep through California put nearly 27,000 people under evacuation orders Tuesday because of the risks of flooding and landslides. On the Central Coast, workers trucked in rock to plug a broken river dam amid steady rain and wind.
Destructive winds gusting over 70 mph blew out windows and there were many reports of downed trees. Power outages affected more than 330,000 utility customers in northern and central regions, according to poweroutage.us, which monitors outages across the country.
Crews raced to stabilize the Pajaro River fault on Tuesday, placing rocks and boulders to finish plugging the gap that opened late Friday, about 70 miles south of San Francisco. Workers will then raise the elevation of that section to match the rest of the dam in the coming weeks to make it impenetrable, officials said.
Tuesday's storm initially scattered light to moderate rain across the north and center of the state. But the National Weather Service said the storm was moving faster than expected and that most of the rain would shift south.
So far this winter, California has been hit by 10 former atmospheric rivers — long plumes of moisture from the Pacific Ocean — as well as strong storms fueled by arctic air that have produced blizzard conditions.
Rodrique Ngowi, Kathy McCormack, Holly Ramer, Maysoon Kahn, Carolyn Thompson, Bobby Caina Calvan, Lisa Baumann, Haven Daley, John Antczak, Stefanie Dazio and Christopher Weber of The Associated Press contributed information for this article.
