100 Million People Affected by East Coast’s Deep Freeze

NEW YORK (AP) —
A man struggles against wind and snow during a snow storm in the Boro Park, Friday. (JDN)

About 100 million people faced a new challenge after the whopping East Coast snowstorm: a gusty deep freeze, topped Saturday by a windchill close to minus 100 on New Hampshire’s Mount Washington that vied for the world’s coldest place.

Jaw-clenching temperatures to start the weekend throughout the Northeast hit Burlington, Vermont, at minus 1 and a windchill of minus 30. Both Philadelphia and New York were shivering at 8 degrees.

And in Hartford, Connecticut, a brutal cold of 10 degrees yielded a windchill of minus 20.

On Saturday, winds of more than 90 mph swirled Mount Washington, the Northeast’s highest peak, at a temperature of minus 37 degrees and a windchill of minus 93. It tied for second place with Armstrong, Ontario, as the coldest spot in the world.

In this aerial photo, the Colonial Place neighborhood in Norfolk, Va., is blanketed in snow Friday. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot via AP)

Boston, at a relatively balmy 11 degrees, was wrangling with a different kind of challenge: a shortage of plumbers as the weather wreaked havoc on pipes that froze and cracked, Democratic Mayor Marty Walsh reported.

A 3-foot tidal surge brought on by the nor’easter along the Massachusetts coast was the highest recorded in nearly a century. Residents of Boston and its suburbs were cleaning up Saturday after the tide that came in Thursday, flooding streets and forcing some residents to evacuate as the water started to freeze.

In New Jersey, many people stayed home instead of dealing with single-digit temperatures.

In Rhode Island, hospitals were treating dozens of storm-related injuries as the region grits through a deep freeze that followed a powerful blizzard.

In Providence and Newport, at least 40 people were treated for various weather-related conditions, from heart attacks, snowblower or shoveling injuries, frostbite and more, according to The Providence Journal.

The storm dropped more than 14 inches of snow on Providence.

Monday is expected to be the first day above freezing since last month. In New York City, temperatures should reach 40 degrees next week.

Even more southern locations didn’t escape the cold; the mercury dipped into the single digits in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., during the weekend, about 20 degrees below normal for this time of year.

The high winds and frigid temperatures prompted several ski resorts to close some of their lifts. Bolton Valley in Vermont said there was a general “lack of demand and enthusiasm from skiers and riders.” With a temperature of minus 14 at the summit and minus 11 at the base, the resort canceled evening skiing due to a frostbite warning.

 

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