A major winter storm is moving across the Midwest towards the Northeast, and is expected to bring a mixture of heavy snow, ice and rain to 30 states. New Jersey and Pennsylvania have declared states of emergency in the hours before the storm.
The National Weather Service said Pittsburgh could get up to 11 inches, while parts of the Poconos could get 15 inches. Crews are preparing to hit the roads to plow, salt and sand, but officials are urging people to stay home.
“This storm has the potential to deliver every, every winter weather option that mother nature has,” Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolfe said in a news conference Friday.
The state imposed a 45 mph speed limit and banned all commercial traffic from traveling on interstates and expressways.
Airports, already hampered by the shutdown, are expected to be busy for the holiday weekend. They’re bracing for the worst. There were more than 3,600 flight delays at airports across the country Friday, according to Flightaware.com. There have been 472 cancellations and counting.
The storm was expected to bring between up to 10 inches of snow to the Midwest before walloping the Northeast on Sunday. The National Weather Service in Albany, New York, said snow could fall at a rate of 1 to 3 inches an hour, creating “difficult to impossible travel conditions” in areas.
In Cleveland, Ohio, shelters were preparing to take in the city’s homeless as the storm approaches. Some are planning to take in as many people as possible, CBS affiliate WOIO reports.
“First thing Saturday morning, we won’t turn anyone away. Whoever calls us, we’ll make sure we say: ‘Yes, come in. We have a warm, safe place for you to go,” said Linda Uveges of the Cleveland City Mission.
“We don’t have beds for everyone because this will be overflow. But we will set up an area at our women’s shelter and also at out men’s facility to make sure that there’s blankets, pillows and cots,” she said.
New York City is expected to see up to 6 inches. Amtrak canceled some trains Saturday from Chicago to Washington and New York and between New York and Boston and Pennsylvania on Sunday.
Mayor Bill de Blasio urged residents to prepare for the storm Saturday morning and get off the roads by 7 p.m. “Sunday is going to be a mess, based on what we know,” he said, CBS New York reports. “Expect it to be very hard to get around.”
