East Coast Digs Out After Storm

Massachusetts towns got 30 inches of snow
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 30, 2022 4:35 PM CST
East Coast Digs Out After Storm
Lamont Bryant, a former NFL player with the Carolina Panthers and the Tennessee Titans, heaves snow from around his car Sunday in Attleboro, Mass. He said it's his first experience with snow.   (Mark Stockwell/The Sun Chronicle via AP)

The sun shone on much of the East Coast on Sunday, a day after a vicious nor'easter brought blizzard conditions to many areas and left more than 100,000 customers without power for a stretch that could last into Monday. Winds that had gusted to more than 80mph on Saturday died down on Sunday, and temperatures climbed into the upper teens and 20s as people emerged from their homes to dig out. The storm dumped snow from Virginia to Maine, but Massachusetts bore the brunt, with the neighboring towns of Sharon and Stoughton getting more than 30 inches, per the AP. Climate change, particularly the warming ocean, probably influenced the strength of the storm, atmospheric researchers said.

Most of the power outages were in Massachusetts. By Sunday afternoon, the powerless numbered about 40,000, mostly on hard-hit Cape Cod. No other states reported widespread outages. Utility Eversource said its Massachusetts customers will have their power back on by the end of the day Monday. In and around New York City, snow totals ranged from a few inches in areas north and west of the city to more than 2 feet in Islip on Long Island, according to the National Weather Service. Warren, Rhode Island, got more than 2 feet, and Norwich, Connecticut had 22 inches. Some parts of Maine and New Hampshire also received more than a foot.

Winds gusted as high as 83mph on Cape Cod, scouring the ground bare in some spots and piling the snow into huge drifts in others. Coastal towns flooded, with wind and waves battering North Weymouth, south of Boston, flooding streets with a slurry of frigid water, according to video posted on social media. Other videos showed a street underwater on Nantucket and waves crashing against the windows of a building in Plymouth. "I was around for the Blizzard of '78, and this one was worse. The wind was tremendous," Joe Brescia, 72, said Sunday, tears streaming down his face from the cold as he shoveled his sidewalk in Warwick, Rhode Island.

(More winter storm stories.)

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