Brutal cold sends shivers through Northeast after 'bomb cyclone'
'Bomb cyclone' floods streets with icy water
Story highlights
- Dozens of record lows could be set this weekend on the East Coast
- At least 19 people have died this week because of severe weather
(CNN)Dangerously cold weather is expected to hammer the Northeast and Midwest this weekend.
The
low temperatures will be 20-30 degrees below normal in parts of the
Northeast, with the mercury rising to only the single digits and teens
during the day, then dropping to near or below zero at night, the National Weather Service said.
The wind chill will make it feel far colder. Many cities will set records for cold, the weather service said.
Photos: Frigid temperatures strike US
The brutal cold comes after a "bomb cyclone"
moved out. The one-two punch of dangerously frigid temperatures and
gusty winds knocked out power to tens of thousands on the East Coast,
dumped more than a foot of snow across eight states and deluged streets
in Massachusetts with icy water.
Strong
winds remain in the Northeast, challenging crews who are trying to
restore power and disruptions to indoor heating -- a major concern with
the dangerously chilly conditions.
When the new weeks starts, things won't get much better, as new snow is possible for many major cities.
Chicago,
Cleveland and Boston have a chance of snow Sunday and Sunday night. New
York City and Washington, D.C., may well see snow or a wintry mix on
Monday and Monday night.
College
football fans who flock to Atlanta for the championship football game on
Monday should prepare for unpleasant weather. There's a good chance of
rain and freezing rain Sunday night through Monday night.
Latest developments
• Outages: More than 5,100 customers in the East were without power, according to reports from 11 states.
• Deadly conditions:
At least 19 people have died this week because of severe weather,
officials said. Six deaths were reported in Wisconsin, four in Texas,
three in North Carolina, and one each in Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, North
Dakota, South Carolina and Virginia.
• Frozen dead on porch: Among
the dead was a 64-year-old man whose body was found lying in front of
his wheelchair Tuesday afternoon on the porch of his Akron, Ohio, house.
He died of hypothermia, authorities said. Temperatures had been in the
single digits that morning, and a Meals on Wheels driver discovered him.
• Freezing cold: Low
temperatures and wind chills will be threats. Dozens of record lows
could be set over the weekend along the East Coast, including in New
York, Boston and Philadelphia.
Emerging from the storm
The
storm heaped plenty of misery across New England. Waves from the sea
washed into Boston streets. And the tide in the city -- 15.16 feet --
broke the record set during the blizzard of 1978, the National Weather
Service said.
The storm flooded
streets in some communities in coastal Massachusetts, turning roads into
slushy rivers. On Friday, areas were freezing over.
"We'll
use a big pump (to) move some of the ice around, but we really have to
wait for the weather to warm up," said Rob Reardon, captain of the fire
department in Duxbury, about 35 miles southeast of Boston.
Thursday, firefighters and
the National Guard scrambled to rescue dozens of coastal residents
stranded by freezing water pushing from the Atlantic. First responders
braved the frigid waters using rubber rescue boats and high-water
vehicles.
In Hull, just southeast
of Boston, the icy mess inundated streets, with water above the wheel
wells of cars and coming up to the doors of homes.
Some
residents were forced to flee. In one case, the fire department used a
front-loader to rescue a woman from the second floor of her home, photos
from neighbor Jennifer Olivieri show.
Water filled the streets of Hull, Massachusetts, southeast of Boston.
In
Marshfield, also southeast of Boston, National Guard troops used a
truck to take people out of homes surrounded by floodwaters.
"There was a lot of water outside," Alex Cametti, who was rescued, told CNN affiliate WBZ.
"It looked like there was about 2 feet, and there (were) cars outside
almost completely underwater. And there was water coming in the back
door, right into the kitchen."
In
Boston, police said almost 500 were towed because of the weather. A
sewer main break in Nantucket poured more than 1 million gallons of
sewage into the harbor and led the board of health to close some nearby
restaurants.
Connecticut, Maine,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and
Virginia reported at least a foot of snow Thursday.
Dedham, Massachusetts, had
19 inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service. Meanwhile,
18.3 inches fell in Bangor, Maine; 13.4 inches came down in Boston; 9
inches covered the ground in Manhattan; 10.2 fell in Hartford,
Connecticut; and 14.1 inches were measured in Providence, Rhode Island.
Travel disrupted on East Coast
More than 1,500 flights were canceled Friday, following the 4,300-plus called off a day earlier, the tracking service FlightAware said.
New
York's John F. Kennedy International Airport resumed flights Friday
morning. Travel disruptions affected Greyhound buses and Amtrak, which
reduced or canceled service.
Hundreds
of air passengers spent Thursday night sleeping in the terminal at
Washington Dulles International Airport after their New York-bound
flights were diverted, CNN affiliate WJLA reported. Most of the
passengers were placed on buses Friday and rode to New York.
Officials urged drivers to stay off the roads, saying too many cars were getting stuck.
With
the snow largely over, cold air is settling through swaths of the
Midwest and East Coast. Dozens of cities are set to endure
record-breaking cold, CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller said.
"Temperatures will be
falling through the day as Arctic air mass moves overhead," the National
Weather Service in Boston said via Twitter early Friday.
