The massive storm fueling blizzard conditions across the nation’s northern tier and killer tornadoes in the South set its sights on the Northeast Thursday, promising snow, ice and high winds from Virginia through New England.
“Significant” accumulating ice and heavy snow was forecast for the interior Mid-Atlantic and New England state Thursday into Friday, the National Weather Service said. Heavy rain and severe weather that spun off numerous of tornadoes in recent days were also expected to continue marching through the Southeast into Florida.
Accumulating snow will fall on approximately 200,000 square miles of the interior Northeast on Thursday and Friday, AccuWeather warned. AccuWeather meteorologists said parts of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine will get up to 18 inches, with isolated areas seeing 2 feet of snow.
“Other hazards like ice and windswept rain will lead to significant travel disruptions,” said Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist.
Rain, a wintry mix, and snow began to spread across the Mid-Atlantic and Carolinas early Thursday. The National Weather Service issued ice storm warnings for parts of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Snow was forecast to roll into interior New England on Friday as the front moves northward up the coast, with up to two feet of snow possible in isolated areas.
The ice was not supposed to make it to Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York City and Boston, where heavy rain was forecast.
3 KILLED:Others trapped in tornado-battered homes in Louisiana, blizzard in North; ice headed to Northeast
Woman recalls moments before killer tornado hit
In Louisiana, residents of Caddo Parish were cleaning up and mourning the loss of Yoshiko Smith, 30, and Nikolus Little, 8, killed when a tornado destroyed their mobile home Tuesday. Preslie Stevens and her daughter Lana were home when the tornado touched down, just yards away from Smith’s home.
“It was raining and then the power went out and we heard loud wind and we got in the closet,” She said, “I tried to shut the door a bunch of times, and it wouldn’t shut … I heard the windows busting and all this stuff flying around.”
Stevens was able to find safety in that closet with her daughter and two cats, but their home is completely destroyed.
“It was fast,” Stevens said. “Just a lot of wind.”
In Union Parish, near the Arkansas line, Farmerville Mayor John Crow said an apartment complex where 50 families lived was badly damaged, a mobile home park with about 10 residences was wiped out, and about 30 homes were damaged along nearby Lake D’Arbonne.
Patsy Andrews of Farmerville said a strange wind blew open the front door and her son barely managed to shut and lock it when the tornado alert came. Her daughter got the tornado alert and yelled for them to get down, andrews said.
“By the time we landed on the floor, all we could hear was ‘Pow Pow!’ like gunshots,” as their windows shattered, she said. ”It was dark, and my baby was on the couch, he was asleep. … We thought we lost him. So my son went and grabbed him off the couch.”
More snow forecast for Midwest
The rest of the country was not yet freed from the historic storm’s grip. Heavy snow and blizzard conditions will continue through Thursday for much of the Midwest, the National Weather Service said. Heavy snow and high winds meant more blizzards in the northern Midwest from the Dakotas through Michigan. More than 150,000 homes and businesses were without power across Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Wind chill temperatures below zero will continue for portions of the region, the weather service said.
Tornadoes hammer South
Parts of Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi were in recovery mode after multiple days of severe weather and tornadoes as the weather system stalled over the region.
The weather service confirmed 14 tornadoes in Texas alone. In Louisiana, a mother and son were killed in the northwestern part of the state Tuesday, and a woman in southeastern St. Charles Parish died in a storm Wednesday. Hundreds of homes and businesses across the region were damaged or destroyed.
The front rolled in from the Pacific with a powerful start Saturday, dumping more than 7 inches of rain in some parts of Southern California and multiple feet of snow in Sierras.
Contributing: The Associated Press
USA TODAY
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