(Image Source: The New York Times)
BY STEFANIE REDDING
Most people dream of a white Christmas not a white Halloween-- the snowstorms in the North East have taken residents by surprise and done some serious damage.
Here’s CNN…
“Snow is still falling and blowing around some parts of the northeast at this hour. The rare autumn snowstorm is blamed for at least five deaths. From Maine to Maryland, more than 4 million people lost power, most of the outages were caused by downed power lines hit by snow laden tree limbs.”
The surprise storm led Governors to declare states of emergency in parts of New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey.
The Commissioner of New York City’s parks department says the damage caused by the trees is due to most trees still having leaves. Those leaves collect snow, and the extra weight causes limbs to break off. This “abnormal” situation is the one of the factors making the storm harder to tackle.
After drawing criticism for poor response to last year’s Christmas blizzard, the New York City Department of Sanitation is on a mission to redeem itself.
The city’s deputy mayor told The New York Times,
“...more than 400 salt spreaders were ready to work through Saturday night, 1,400 plows were prepared, and 2,200 employees were set to work midnight to 8 a.m., a total he called a “full complement.”
Although the amount of snow is unusual for this time of year -- it isn’t the first time snow fell in October. A writer for Huffington Post reports …
“The past 143 years, New York's only seen snow in October 18 times, only 3 of which were over an inch of accumulation. And the last timeflurries fell before Halloween in Gotham was in 1952.”
New York has already seen 12-20 inches according to The Wall Street Journal.
Not everyone was as prepared as New York and there have been some dire consequences. A writer for The Slatest reports...
“Three people were reportedly killed due to the weather: an 84-year-old man in Pennsylvania died when a tree fell on his home, a 20-year-old Massachusetts man died of electrocution from a downed power line, and another person in Connecticut died in a car accident.”
Since that report there has been 2 more deaths. Power crews are working to get power lines back up, but it may take up to a week for some to get power back.
Transcript by Newsy.
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