Nor’easter Wreaks Havoc on Eastern Seaboard

Nasty weather battered much of the nation Thursday, with strong winds slamming the East Coast and snow blanketing an area from Ohio to North Carolina.

Dewey Beach Mayor Bob Frederick said many of the town’s 250 residents voluntarily left town as flood waters rose Wednesday night. Roads on the narrow strip of sand between the Atlantic Ocean and Rehoboth Bay were impassable, Frederick said Thursday.

“The water came in last night and it just stayed,” Frederick said.

At the height of the storm, waves as high as 10 feet were reported along the coast. Water covered Rehoboth Beach three hours after high tide.

“People always worry about a nor’easter. Hurricanes come through and it’s over and done with, but a nor’easter hangs around through several high tides,” said Nancy Howard, Maryland Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman.

The storm stomped its way north from Florida, flooding streets, stranding travelers, forcing people to evacuate their homes and leaving tens of thousands without power. It also dumped plenty of snow inland.

The heavy snow--more than a foot in some spots--shocked Kentucky and Ohio, where forecasters had predicted a light dusting.

“This makes us look like idiots,” said the National Weather Service’s Mark Richardson.

Nineteen deaths have been attributed to the East Coast storm since Monday, including five in accidents on snowy roads in Kentucky and two in Indiana. Two men died when the roof caved in under 11 inches of snow at a recycling plant in Princeton, W.Va. In South Carolina, a pregnant woman drowned when her car plunged into a swollen creek.

The storm brought tornadoes to southern Florida before churning to the north, hammering the coast from Georgia to New Jersey with heavy rain and winds as high as 75 mph.

Even though the snow had tapered off, about 35,000 customers in Tennessee were without power Thursday. Thousands more lacked electricity in Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Flood waters up to 4 feet deep along New Jersey’s coast forced authorities to close nearly all the access routes to Atlantic City, Ocean City and Wildwood.