Government and schools are closed in the Northeast because of the threat of winter weather. More than 60 million people are under winter alerts.
More than 60 million people are under winter weather alerts, and local officials have taken steps to prepare the densely populated region, like closing government offices and cancelling school.
Boston could get up to 12 inches of snow. Washington DC could get up to 6 inches, New York City could get up to 3 inches, and Philadelphia could get up to 4 inches, he says.
Travelers on planes have had to deal with a lot of problems because of the winter weather and Covid-19. Flightaware.com says that almost 2,000 flights have already been cancelled on Friday.
Executive branch state offices in Connecticut will be closed on Friday, and non-essential workers are being asked to work from home instead of going to the office.
Gov. Ned Lamont said in a statement: “This looks like a big winter storm that is going to hit our state, and it is going to happen right at the height of the morning rush hour.”
He also told people not to go on the roads if they could avoid it.
330,000 tonnes of salt, more than 700 salt spreaders, and more than 1,600 plough vehicles are ready for use in New York City’s winter weather plan. New Jersey has also declared a state of emergency.
Snow and wind could cause power outages because power lines were knocked down. Gov. Phil Murphy told people that this could happen. And he told people to work from home if they could, because the storm was likely to make it difficult to get around.
Non-emergency state employees in Massachusetts are not being asked to come to work on Friday.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation says it has about 3,900 pieces of state and vendor equipment available for snow and ice operations, which includes snowplows, spreader combos, and front-end loaders. It expects to use about 2,500 pieces of equipment for this storm, which is a lot of equipment.
Boston said that all public schools in the city will be closed on Friday because of bad weather.
Schools in the area already have a lot of staffing problems, but it’s not clear how many of them are because of Covid.
Virginia’s Army and Air National Guard Major General Tim Williams says that the National Guard is being called in to help with emergency management as the state faces its second winter storm this week.
As a result of this, Gov. Ralph Northam has declared a state of emergency, as well.
Jeff Orrock, a National Weather Service Meteorologist in Charge, said the storm coming soon will be smaller, but it will hit the same places as the storm in Virginia that hit earlier in the week.
There could be “three to four inches” of snow all over the place, with “some isolated amounts,” Orrock said. “We could see up to 6-8 inches at the very top.”
Government offices and schools in Washington DC will be closed on Friday. Some vaccination and Covid-19 testing sites will be open on Friday, but Mayor Muriel Bowser said that some of them will be closed.
Winter weather is also having an effect on Covid-19 testing and vaccination sites in Maryland and Virginia, as well as other places in the country.
The Maryland Department of Health says it will be closed on Friday, and the Virginia Department of Health says that five of its Community Vaccination Centers will be closed because of bad weather.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear called a state of emergency Thursday after a lot of snow fell across the state. And the state’s National Guard has been called in at all interstate closures in the state.
Stormy weather is making it hard to travel on major interstates, as well as state and local roads, as well as power outages and damage to public infrastructure and private property, Beshear said in a statement.
People should stay off the roads if they can, he said. The Red Cross is keeping an eye on the need for warming centres, and search and rescue teams have already been called in to check on stranded motorists for safety, he said.
Thursday was a bad day for the Western Kentucky Parkway because of the bad weather.
Scotty Sharp, a spokesman for the State Police, said that only minor and non-life-threatening injuries were caused by the accident.
