| Situation Update No. 2 Ref.no.: SS-20100207-24830-USA
Situation Update No. 2
On 2010-02-10 at 04:31:51 [UTC]
Event: Snow Storm
Location: USA District of Columbia Washington area Situation: The U.S. House of Representatives has canceled votes for the week, hundreds of flights have been scrubbed and Amtrak still isn’t running a full schedule as a “paralyzing” storm packing as much as 20 inches of snow bears down on the East Coast. The storm, the second for the Washington-Baltimore area in less than a week, will be accompanied by cold and winds gusting from 35 to 55 mph (56 to 88 kph) in the Northeast, forecasters said. Ten to 20 inches could fall in Washington, where federal offices were closed for a second full day today, while 10 to 16 are forecast for New York. “Unfortunately, everything is coming together for another paralyzing winter storm event from D.C. up to Philadelphia, but this time it won’t spare New York City,” said Jim Rouiller, a senior energy meteorologist at Planalytics Inc. “This will probably shut down the East Coast cities for the next couple of days. This is definitely going to be one for the record books.” Heating oil advanced on speculation demand will increase as temperatures plunge in the U.S. Northeast, which consumes four- fifths of home heating fuel. Contracts for March delivery gained 5.18 cents, or 2.7 percent, to settle at $1.9373 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Heating demand in Washington and Baltimore was 16 percent higher than normal last week and New York was up 6 percent, David Salmon, a forecaster for Weather Derivatives of Belton, Missouri, said in a note to clients.
Amtrak canceled 14 of its Acela trains between Boston and Washington, as well as more than 20 out of New York, Chicago and other Northeast cities, according to a statement. The national passenger railroad hasn’t run a full schedule since last week’s storm, said Cliff Cole, a spokesman. The biggest air carriers including UAL Corp.’s United Airlines and Delta Air Lines Inc. canceled at least 1,300 flights today in cities including Washington, New York and Chicago. Spokesmen for the airlines said more flights would likely be scrubbed tonight. US Airways Group Inc. halted 1,300 flights for tomorrow, or 42 percent of its entire schedule, while Delta said it cut “several hundred” and AMR Corp.’s American Airlines trimmed 120. Continental Airlines Inc. said it will suspend all 400 of its Newark flights tomorrow. Heavy snow, from 10 to 20 inches and as much as 24 inches in some isolated areas, may fall from Washington to New York, Rouiller said in a telephone interview from Berwyn, Pennsylvania. Boston is likely to receive 6 to 10 inches, along with Chicago and Detroit, he said.
“The snow we are predicting for this will lift places like Philadelphia over the record for snowfall over the course of any winter,” Rouiller said. Washington is likely to get about 10 inches tonight and tomorrow, while the snowfall will deepen closer to Baltimore, where 20 inches are possible, said Jared Klein, a weather service meteorologist in Sterling, Virginia. A system moving in from the west is forecast to spark the creation of a major low pressure system off the mid-Atlantic coast that will drive the snow northward and into the cities, Rouiller said. “They call this a bomb in the meteorological community,” Rouiller said by telephone. A winter storm warning was posted for Washington starting at noon today. Federal government offices remain shut, after more than 20 inches fell on parts of the city over the weekend, the Office of Personnel Management said in an e-mailed statement. The U.S. Senate won’t meet tomorrow because of the storm, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid announced on the floor today. The House has canceled votes for the rest of the week. In the New York City area, a winter storm warning goes into effect at 10 p.m. The snow is expected to be heavy at times before tapering off tomorrow evening, the National Weather Service in Upton, New York, said. Watches, warnings and advisories stretch across much of the eastern half of the U.S. from Minnesota to New Hampshire and south to Kentucky, according to the weather service. In New York City, 365 plow-equipped salt-spreaders will begin operating at first snowfall tonight, said Kathy Dawkins, a spokeswoman for the Sanitation Department.
The plan calls for some 1,600 plows to start work when 2 inches pile up. Snow removal usually costs the city about $1 million per inch of accumulation, Dawkins said. Delaware has spent $3.9 million since Jan. 30, which almost depletes its snow removal budget of $4.1 million, said Jim Westhoff, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation. If Delaware goes over budget from the storm, it will automatically shift funds from the state’s Transportation Trust Fund. “At no time are we ever out of money for snow removal and to keep our roads safe,” Westhoff said. Alpha Natural Resources Inc., the third-largest U.S. coal company, said today that its Cumberland operation in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, has been idled for three days because of power disruptions. The mine has capacity to produce about 7.3 million tons of coal annually, according to the company’s Web site. Dominion Virginia Power has just about restored all power to customers who lost it during the last storm and are now positioning crews to be ready for the next, said Karl Neddenien, a company spokesman in Richmond, where snow has begun to fall. “This is quite a string of challenges and we are prepared, but we would like to see some blue sky for a while too,” Neddenien said by telephone. |
