A wintry storm dropped snow on the US Northeast on Wednesday and threatened to bring dangerous winds and flooding to a region still climbing out from the devastation of Superstorm Sandy. The nor'easter storm added misery to thousands of people whose homes were destroyed by Sandy, which killed 120 people when it smashed ashore on October 29 in the New York-New Jersey area, swallowing entire neighbourhoods with rising seawater and blowing homes from their foundations.
Some 650,000 homes and businesses still lacked power in the region from one of the biggest and costliest storms ever to hit the United States. Airlines cancelled more than 1,200 flights, tracking service FlightAware.com reported. New York and New Jersey evacuated the most vulnerable areas ahead of the nor'easter, whose rain, strong winds and snow were expected to hit a large portion of the Northeast region.
The low-pressure system was forecast to strengthen as it moved north on Wednesday with wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour(97 km per hour), the National Weather Service said. Ice pellets hit Long Island and the storm lifted wave heights to nearly 20 feet (6 metres) off Nantucket, Massachusetts, AccuWeather reported. School districts in Connecticut sent students home early as a precaution, and the New York Stock Exchange removed the giant US flag from its facade to protect it from high winds. Snowflakes or a mix of rain and snow fell on parts of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, causing airport delays. American Airlines suspended operations in Philadelphia and at the major New York-area airports on Wednesday, but said it expected them to resume on Thursday. The AMR Corp unit said 365 flights were cancelled for Wednesday and Thursday.
United Continental canceled about 500 flights for Wednesday and Thursday because of the storm. That figure accounted for less than 5 percent of its total flights scheduled for the time period. Delta Air Lines said it had about 150 cancellations at the three major New York airports and Philadelphia.
Just across the New York City line in the Long Island community of Cedarhurst, the curb was piled high with damaged wood doors, bookshelves, oil burners, couches and rugs from Sandy - debris that people feared could become deadly projectiles in the wind. Water had rushed through Cedarhurst like a river during the Sandy, forcing Rudi Schlachter, 34, to move her family to the upper floors of their house.
"All you need is a gale of wind driving a piece of wood into somebody's window," Schlachter said in front of her home, which had just regained electricity but still lacked heat because of Sandy. "We're leaving. I don't want my kids to see the water again." Many gasoline stations remained shut in Cedarhurst, complicating efforts for people to flee the new storm. Of five gas stations along a stretch of road near Cedarhurst just south of John F. Kennedy International Airport, none had gas Tuesday night and one, a Shell station, received a delivery Wednesday morning. The lines there were more than two hours long.