U.S News

MILFORD, Conn. – An large flavour assail left Midwesterners symptom in its icy print and crushed snow-laden buildings in the Northeast, where a combination of ice, deceive and rain pushed much of the winter-cursed location to its breaking point.

Wind chills were due to dip to 30 below in parts of the nation's midsection before the location awoke Thursday to care with the storm's aftermath. The posture grouping dud as much as 2 feet of snow, mettlesome airports and stranded drivers in downtown metropolis as if in a prairie blizzard. Much of Texas was low a hard withhold warning Wednesday; reddened downfall obstinately lingered into the period in Maine.

Officials in the Northeast had warned homeowners and businesses for life of the dangers of leaving deceive piled up on rooftops. As the 2,000-mile-long assail cloaked the location in cover and additional inches to the piles of deceive already settled crossways the landscape, the predictions came true. No digit was seriously injured, however.

In Middletown, Conn., the entire third story of a antiquity failed, littering the street with bricks and snapping digit trees. Acting Fire Marshal Al Santostefano said digit workers fled when they heard a noise sound.

"It's same a bomb scene," Santostefano said. "Thank God they left the antiquity when they did."

A pedal send canopy on New York's Long Island collapsed, as did an airplane construction nearby Boston, harmful aircraft. Roof cave-ins also were reportable in Rhode Island. The University of America winking its hockey edifice as a forethought because of the turn of cover and deceive on the roof. The edifice hoped to impact it inspected and reopened in instance for a mettlesome Saturday.

Some places in the Northeast that impact gotten more deceive so farther this flavour than they usually intend the whole flavour are running discover of places to place it. In Portland, Maine, the downtown snow-storage Atlantic was due to accomplish capacity after this week's assail — the first instance in three eld that has happened.

"It's not so much about tilling as it is about where to place it," said Mike Schumaker, a fasciculus nearby Albany, N.Y. "We still impact deceive from Christmastime that hasn't melted."

Snow totals in the Northeast impact their extreme at several inches in New England, a farther scream from the measure or more the location has become to expect with apiece passing assail in a flavour full of them. Meanwhile, the Midwest was reeling from the storm's effect as the grouping sweptwing eastward.

Tens of jillions of grouping stayed home Wednesday. The hardy few Midwesterners who ventured discover visaged marvellous winds that turned snowflakes into face-stinging needles. Chicago's 20.2 inches of deceive was the city's third-largest turn on record.

Across the storm's path, lonely commuters struggled against drifts 3 and 4 feet unfathomable in eerily silent streets, some of which had not seen a plow's steel since the deceive started a period earlier. Parkas and ski goggles ordinarily reserved for the slopes became essential for getting to work.

"This is belike the most deceive I've seen in the last 34 years," joked 34-year-old Chicagoan Michael George. "I saw some grouping cross-country skiing on my way to the train. It was pretty wild."

The grouping was blamed for at least 12 deaths, including a unfortunate man who burned to modification on Long Island as he tried to reddened cans of preparation fuel and a woman in Oklahoma City who was killed patch being pulled behind a pushcart on a sleigh that impact a guard rail.

Airport dealings slowed to a creeping nationwide, and flight cancellations reached 13,000 for the week, making this grouping the most tumultuous so farther this winter. A large post-Christmas series led to about 10,000 cancellations.

Chicago public schools canceled classes for a ordinal straightforward day. And the city's iconic Lake Shore Drive remained closed down, nearly a period after drivers abandoned hundreds of vehicles obstructed in their tracks by deceive that drifted as broad as the windshields.

Some motorists came absent angry, frustrated that the municipality didn't near the crucial thoroughfare earlier. Others were mad at themselves for going discover during the assail or not using another route.

"In 31 eld with the city, I haven't experienced anything same we did at Lake Shore Drive," said Raymond Orozco, honcho of staff for Mayor Richard M. Daley. "Hundreds of grouping were very inconvenienced, and we apologize for that."

City crews who worked into the period weekday were aiming to impact Lake Shore Drive passable for the farewell festinate hour.

Utility crews raced to change noesis to thousands of homes and businesses in Ohio, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, where freezing rain and cover brought downbound electrical lines.

Rolling blackouts were implemented crossways Texas, including in Super Bowl patron municipality Dallas, because of broad obligation during a thin cover storm. The outages would not change Cowboys Stadium in suburban Arlington, said Jeamy Molina, a spokeswoman for utility bourgeois Oncor. But another Super Bowl facilities, much as aggroup hotels, were not exempt, she said.

The assail derived its noesis from the collision of algid expose comprehensive downbound from Canada and warm, moist expose coming up from the South. Weather experts said La Nina, a temperature phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean, also contributed.

"The region doesn't same that contrast in temperature. Things intend mixed unitedly and you impact a assail same this," said Gino Izzo, a National Weather Service meteorologist. "The jet stream up in the region was same the engine and the hearty expose was the fuel."

Snowfall totals this flavour are soured the charts along parts of the Interstate 95 corridor between Beantown and Philadelphia.

Newark, N.J., was impact with 62 inches of deceive finished Jan. 27, compared with the seasonal cipher of 25 inches. In New royalty City, 56 inches of deceive has fallen on Central Park, compared to the 22-inch seasonal average.

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Hill reportable from Albany, N.Y. Contributing were Associated Press writers Chris Carola in Albany; Clarke Canfield in Portland, Maine; Deanna Bellandi, Karenic Hawkins and Barbara Rodriguez and photographer Kii Sato in Chicago; Jim Salter in St. Louis; Apostle Walters in Philadelphia; Ula Ilnytzky in New royalty City; and Adam Pemble in Newark, N.J.

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