In Northeast, a Snow Job 2 1/2 Feet Deep

After failing to live up to its billing in the Mid-Atlantic states, a big late-winter storm piled snow 2 1/2 feet deep in New England on Tuesday and hammered the coast with waves that threw rocks as big as bowling balls across shoreline roads.

Hundreds of flights were canceled and schools were closed across the Northeast for a second day, and workers in Rhode Island’s state lottery office fled just before the roof collapsed under the weight of snow and ice. No one was hurt.

Schools, banks, businesses and government offices were closed in New Hampshire and much of Maine, and the only vehicles on many highways were snowplows.

“Wolfeboro is a ghost town,” snowplow driver Gary George said as he cleared roads in the small town in eastern New Hampshire.

Vermont’s Jay Peak ski resort got 29 inches of snow; 28 inches fell at Ballston Spa, N.Y.; and 25 inches piled up at Jaffrey, N.H.

Elsewhere, the storm that had threatened to be the worst in years delivered only a few inches of snow in New York City, and Philadelphia got only flurries, sleet and rain.

At least eight people were killed in weather-related accidents--four in New York state, two in Connecticut and one each in New Jersey and Massachusetts.