East Coast Braces for New Snow-Laden Storm

Snowplows and salt trucks were gassed up Monday and some schools closed as the second storm in a week threatened to drop up to two feet of snow along the East Coast and Appalachians.

The storm comes on the heels of a snowy blast that left up to six inches of snow in the Midwest and was blamed for as many as nine deaths.

Two low-pressure areas were expected to combine into one storm during the night and roll northeastward along the East Coast.

Winter storm warnings were posted through today from the mountains of western North Carolina into New England. Thunderstorm warnings were issued for parts of Florida.

New York City’s Sanitation Department was at its highest level of storm alert, with all 350 salt spreaders loaded and snowplows attached to more than 1,250 garbage trucks, department spokeswoman Anne Canty said.

Up to two feet of snow was forecast for the mountains of northern West Virginia by tonight, with five to 11 inches at lower elevations, the weather service said.

Classes were canceled Monday in some West Virginia counties where as much as a foot of snow remained on the ground from a storm a week earlier. Some Monday night college basketball games were postponed.

Schools also were closed in parts of western North Carolina after sleet, snow and freezing rain.

A Bluefield, W. Va., rock salt supplier said he sold out last week and won’t receive any more until at least the end of this week.

“We sold as much salt this year as we have the past three years,” manager Tripper Thomas said.

Light but steady snow was already falling in western Pennsylvania. Up to 18 inches was forecast in central Pennsylvania’s mountains.

Farther west, along the eastern slopes of the Rockies, chinook wind buffeted northern Colorado, blowing down a house under construction in Ft. Collins and gusting to 105 m.p.h. at Squaw Mountain south of Idaho Springs.

The wind, coupled with eight to 10 inches of new snow in the central Rockies, increased the avalanche danger, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center reported.