The Morning After: Everything That Happened During Last Night's Monstrous Blizzard
Good morning, survivors!
Snow has now stopped falling in New York City and New Jersey, while it will continue for a few more hours in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Long Island, New Hampshire and Maine. It's already the sixth-biggest storm in Boston on record, and since snow's still coming down, it'll probably climb higher by the end of the day.
Hurricane-force winds, as well as the snow, left over 650,000 across the region without power, while snowfall totals reached over two feet for much of Massachusetts and parts of Connecticut. The grand champion? Milford, Conn., at 38 inches. Here's everything else that happened during last night's blizzard.
On the Long Island Expressway, many motorists were stuck overnight when an accident brought traffic to a halt as the blizzard moved in. Hundreds of cars were abandoned and left in the middle of the highway while rescuers guided their drivers to safety.
A woman crosses the street in Portland, Maine.
One death has been reported in connection with the blizzard, as a woman in Poughkeepsie, NY lost control of her car and struck an elderly man who was walking on the side of the road.
Snow will continue to fall throughout the day in Maine, where a record-breaking 29.3 inches of snow has been recorded, on its way to over 30 before the end of the storm.
Ocean overflows the sea wall in Winthrop, Mass.
The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth, MA lost power overnight when snow knocked out offsite power. The plant is now running on its own diesel generators, and officials insist that there is no danger.
New York City airports have just begun service again, with the first passenger flights landing since yesterday, although service remains limited.
Here's a map from the National Weather Service keeping track of the snowfall across the region (damn, Connecticut!).
A car buried in the snow in Southington, Conn.
To get a sense of how quickly the snow fell after dark, check out the GIF below of this time-lapse video by Geoff Fox, who set a camera on his porch in Hamden, CT.
Sporting a manly bomber jacket which seems to say "I can't be in Bermuda this time, because this just isn't my style when I'm doing my Bermuda thing," NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg told New Yorkers this morning that "we were lucky," as the storm moved off towards sea, sparing the region a replay of the devastation Sandy caused a few months ago. The final snowfall total for Central Park came in at a little under a foot.
Hug your loved ones, dig out those snow pants, watch out for yellow snow, and enjoy what looks like to be a mostly clear day - after all the hysterics, bogus names, and doomsday prepping, we have been left a beautiful, bright snowscape.
Newtown, Penn.