New York/Boston: Snow began blanketing northeastern United States on Tuesday as a winter storm packing blizzard conditions rolled into the region, prompting public officials to ask people to stay home while airlines grounded flights and schools cancelled classes.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was already on her way to the airport on Monday to fly to Washington for her first meeting with US President Donald Trump when he rang her to postpone the trip due to the approach of a winter storm.
The storm, which is expected to hit the northeastern United States, has prompted airlines to cancel thousands of flights and some mayors to order schools to close on Tuesday.
The White House said in a later statement the visit would be rescheduled to Friday.
Merkel continued to Berlin’s Teel airport after her 10-minute conversation with Trump to personally inform reporters who were due to travel with her to Washington of the change of plan.
“The trip is cancelled. That is not a joke,” Merkel told the dozen or more surprised reporters already seated on board the government’s Airbus A340 plane.
Merkel had been due to meet Trump for more than two hours on Tuesday, followed by a working lunch.
The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of eight states including New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut, with forecasts calling for up to 60cm of snow by early Wednesday, with temperatures 15 to 30 degrees below normal for this time of year.
Some 50 million people along the Eastern Seaboard were under storm or blizzard warnings and watches.
“If you must go out, do so for as limited time period as possible ... but the best thing to do is stay in,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday.
Above-ground subway service will be suspended at 4am local time as transit officials in the New York metro area warned that more bus and train routes could be suspended throughout the day.
“It’s a good day to stay home,” said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on CBS Radio. “It is going to be a dangerous, dangerous situation.” The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey readied hundreds of pieces of snow equipment at the three major New York area airports. Thousands of tonnes of salt and sand were prepared for airport roads, parking lots, bridges and tunnels.
Airlines preemptively cancelled more than 4,000 flights ahead of the storm, according to tracking service FlightAware.com. The airports with the most cancellations were Newark International Airport in New Jersey and Boston Logan International Airport.
American Airlines cancelled all flights into New York’s three airports — Newark, LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport — and JetBlue Airways reported extensive cancellations.
Delta Air Lines cancelled 800 flights for Tuesday for New York, Boston and other northeast airports. United Airlines
said it would have no operations at Newark or LaGuardia.
“We’re keeping a close eye on things and depending on how things go, will plan to ramp back up Wednesday morning,” United said in a statement.
Governors in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia declared a state of emergency.
“When this thing hits, it’s going to hit hard and it’s going to put a ton of snow on the ground in a hurry,” Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker said, urging people to consider working from home if they could.
New York City state schools — the largest school system in the United States — cancelled classes on Tuesday.
Districts in Boston, Fairfax County, Virginia, and Philadelphia also cancelled school on Tuesday.
Boston braces for snow
The storm comes near the end of an unusually mild winter along much of the East Coast, with below-normal snowfalls in cities such as New York City and Washington, D.C.
Boston was braced for up to 30cm of snow, which forecasters warned would fall quickly during the storm’s expected peak. Washington D.C., which often bogs down with even low levels of snow, was expecting 13cm and twice that in outlying areas.
Snowfall will be heavy at times with as much as 10cm per hour expected to fall with winds reaching up to 100km/h in parts of the northeast, the National Weather Service warned.
“Visibilities will become poor with whiteout conditions at times,” the service said.
