Storm Rolls East--Closes Schools, Clogs Traffic, Knocks Out Power

A late-winter blanket of wet snow pulled down power lines along the East Coast, closed schools and strained the backs of homeowners who had to shovel the stuff Monday.

The same storm that had piled snow nearly 2 feet deep in the Missouri Ozarks over the weekend rolled across the East with snow, sleet, ice and rain Sunday night and Monday, making a mess of the morning commute just a week before the start of spring.

The southwestern Pennsylvania city of Bedford got 18 inches; more than a foot piled up in southern Ohio and the hills of Virginia and West Virginia; 10 inches fell on parts of New Jersey and at Litchfield, Conn.; and by this morning up to 10 inches of snow were possible at Boston.

Airlines had scattered delays and cancellations. Overhead wire problems delayed morning commuter trains in the Philadelphia area, and fallen trees and power lines slowed rail service in New Jersey.

Also in the Philadelphia area, the heavy, wet snow snapped power lines, causing 75,000 customers to lose electricity. Tens of thousands more were blacked out in Connecticut, Maryland, Tennessee, West Virginia, New Jersey, New York’s Long Island and Massachusetts.

Pennsylvania’s Legislature called off Monday’s meetings in Harrisburg. Schools were closed in more than half of West Virginia’s 55 counties.

The more than a foot of snow that fell on northern West Virginia’s Preston County brought the total to more than 54 inches since March 1. Drifts stood 5 feet high.