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East’s 2nd Storm in Week Piles Snow 3 Feet Deep, Disrupts Power

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<i> From Associated Press</i>

The second big storm in a week blasted the East from North Carolina to Maine on Tuesday, canceling hundreds of airline flights, piling snow nearly three feet deep and leaving more than 200,000 people without electricity.

“It’s going to be a replay of the March blizzard of 1993. We’ve got problems all over the state,” said West Virginia National Guard spokesman Capt. Ron Garton.

West Virginia Gov. Gaston Caperton told thousands of state workers to stay home, declared a state of emergency and ordered the National Guard to help snow-clearing efforts.

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State employees in the eastern third of Kentucky were given the day off. Vermont’s state government shut down at 2 p.m., and the Legislature adjourned on the first day of its 1994 session.

Emergencies were declared in four east-central Ohio counties and 11 Upstate New York counties, and National Guard four-wheel-drive vehicles were sent with help. Ohio’s House of Representatives canceled a voting session.

Schools were closed in 16 states.

Six people were killed, including a boy who slid into traffic in New Hampshire, a man who was hit by a falling tree in West Virginia and four men who collapsed while or after shoveling snow. The shoveling victims included two men in Rhode Island, one in Ohio and one in Pennsylvania.

Airports were closed or idled by a lack of flights, Amtrak passengers were blocked by ice and downed power lines, and highways were slippery or blocked.

Ice and snow piled up at a railroad crossing in Summit Township, Pa., causing four locomotives of a freight train hauling lumber to derail. No one was hurt.

In North Carolina, the storm halted blood collections in some parts of the state. The Red Cross issued an appeal for all available donors to travel to collection sites that were still open.

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The heaviest snow was in the central Appalachians and upper Ohio Valley.

In southwestern Pennsylvania, 33 inches fell at Waynesburg, 25 inches piled up at North Braddock and 24 inches fell at Uniontown. Downtown Pittsburgh got 20 inches.

Middlebourne, in northern West Virginia, got 28 inches of snow, while 20 inches fell on West Union, in the north-central part of the state. Twenty-one inches fell on Newport, Ohio.

Up to 20 inches of snow fell on the mountains of North Carolina, and high winds and freezing snow were a problem in parts of the state.

In West Virginia, emergency shelters were opened for some of the 100,000 to 150,000 people without power, said state spokeswoman Jill Wilson.

More than 100,000 other customers lost power in Maryland, New Jersey, New York state, Connecticut, Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio.

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