Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Airlines gearing up for delays as storm takes aim at Northeast

Winter Storm

Elise Amendola / AP

A worker walks up towards a plow smoothing a large salt pile at Eastern Salt Company in Chelsea, Mass., Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013, in preparation for a major winter storm headed toward the U.S. Northeast. The National Weather Service calls for up to 2 feet of snow expected for a Boston-area region that has seen mostly bare ground this winter.

Airlines have canceled hundreds of flights Friday and Saturday in anticipation of a dangerous winter storm in the Northeast.

Most airlines serving Las Vegas from Northeastern U.S. and Canada already have begun gearing up for potential flight delays and have notifications on their websites explaining procedures for changing flights without penalty.

Southwest, Delta, American, United, US Airways, JetBlue, Virgin America, Air Canada and WestJet are allowing changes at no extra cost for Friday, Saturday and some Sunday flights.

The snow is expected to start Friday morning, with the heaviest amounts falling at night and into Saturday. Wind gusts could reach 65 mph. Widespread power failures were feared, along with flooding in coastal areas still recovering from Superstorm Sandy in October.

Airlines have canceled more than 500 flights and counting, with the disruptions certain to ripple across the U.S.

McCarran International Airport spokeswoman Christine Crews said there usually aren’t many problems with passengers sitting around the Las Vegas airport in the event of delays, because most customers stay aware of potential weather problems. Those who learn about delays when they arrive at the airport typically rebook flights and rooms and go back to their hotels, she said.

A blizzard of potentially historic proportions threatened to strike the Northeast with a vengeance Friday, with 1 to 2 feet of snow feared along the densely populated Interstate 95 corridor from the New York City area to Boston and beyond.

From Pennsylvania to Maine, people rushed to stock up on food and other storm supplies, and road crews readied salt and sand, halfway through what was looking like a merciful winter. Boston and Providence, R.I., called off school on Friday.

Forecasters said this could one for the record books.

“This one doesn’t come along every day. This is going to be a dangerous winter storm,” said Alan Dunham, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Taunton, Mass. “Wherever you need to get to, get there by Friday afternoon and don’t plan on leaving.”

Boston could get up to 2 feet of snow, while New York City was expecting 10 to 14 inches. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said plows and 250,000 tons of salt were being put on standby.

“We hope forecasts are exaggerating the amount of snow, but you never can tell,” he said.

Blizzard warnings were posted for parts of New Jersey and New York’s Long Island, as well as portions of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, including Hartford, Conn., and Providence. The warnings extended into New Hampshire and Maine.

In New England, it could prove to be among the top 10 snowstorms in history, and perhaps even break Boston’s record of 27.6 inches, set in 2003, forecasters said.

The last major snowfall in southern New England was well over a year ago — the Halloween storm of 2011.

Dunham said southern New England has seen less than half its normal snowfall this season, but “we’re going to catch up in a heck of a hurry.”

“Everybody’s going to get plastered with snow,” he said.

Diane Lopes was among the shoppers who packed a supermarket Thursday in the coastal fishing city of Gloucester, Mass. She said she went to a different grocery earlier in the day but it was too crowded. Lopes said she has strep throat and normally wouldn’t leave the house but had to stock up on basic foods — “and lots of wine.”

She chuckled at the excitement the storm was creating in a place where snow is routine.

“Why are us New Englanders so crazy, right?” she said.

In New Hampshire, Dartmouth College student Evan Diamond and other members of the ski team were getting ready for races at the Ivy League school’s winter carnival.

“We’re pretty excited about it because this has been an unusual winter for us,” he said. “We’ve been going back and forth between having really solid cold snaps and then the rain washing everything away.”

But he said the snow might be too much of a good thing this weekend: “For skiing, we like to have a nice hard surface, so it will be kind of tough to get the hill ready.”

Terrance Rodriguez, a doorman at a luxury apartment complex in Boston, took the forecast in stride.

“It’s just another day in Boston. It’s to be expected. We’re in a town where it’s going to snow,” he said. “It’s like doomsday prep. It doesn’t need to be. People just take it to the extreme.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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