Northeast Takes Its Turn With Deadly Storm

The first major snow and ice storm of the season moved up the East Coast on Thursday, forcing schools and airports to close, sending cars and trucks skidding on slick roads and snapping power lines.

Fog in some places added to the hazards of driving as the National Weather Service warned of reduced visibility and possible whiteouts caused by heavy snowfall.

So far the storm, which crossed the southern Plains earlier in the week, then moved from the Texas Panhandle to Virginia on Wednesday before continuing to the Northeast on Thursday, has killed at least 18 people -- mostly in motor vehicle accidents.

At least 76 accidents were reported Thursday on the New Jersey Turnpike alone, and more than 1.6 million homes and businesses from the Carolinas to Oklahoma were without electricity.

In Durham, N.C., faculty members and their families carrying sleeping bags took refuge at Duke University’s Law School, which has its own generator, said Erwin Chemerinsky, a visiting constitutional law professor from USC.

Chemerinsky said the only food available was at a nearby Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise, where people waited 90 minutes in line to be served. He said his family planned to spend Thursday night in sleeping bags at the school.

Typical of the problems facing many commuters was Lisa Rafanelli’s tense journey to her job as an art history teacher at Manhattanville College in Westchester County, N.Y. It is usually less than an hour’s drive from New York City.

“It took me two hours to get there and 2 1/2 hours to get home,” she said after parking her snow-covered car in an East Side Manhattan garage. “There were a lot of people stranded on the side of the road.”

The storm sharply curtailed air traffic and caused concern for passengers aboard an early-morning Delta Air Lines shuttle bound for Washington.

It took off on time from New York’s La Guardia Airport and reached the nation’s capital, only to find that snow had closed Reagan National Airport. The plane returned to LaGuardia, but that field had also been shut down. Finally, the aircraft touched down at Hartford, Conn.

The force of the storm, which coated windshields within minutes, caught the New York Sanitation Department by surprise. Officials doubled the number of snowplows on the streets to 800, but some main thoroughfares were not cleaned until early evening.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg estimated that the storm would cost the city -- which is already facing serious financial difficulties -- $1 million for each inch of snow. The weather service said New York would have 6 to 8 inches.

“Clearing snow is expensive,” Bloomberg said. “Having said that, the first thing, the most important thing is to make sure people can get around and get around safely. Every mayor would like to have very few snow days.”

The storm’s effects were felt most harshly in the Carolinas. The weight of ice snapped tree limbs like twigs and easily toppled power lines. Duke Power reported about 1.2 million homes and businesses were without electricity in North and South Carolina, and told customers it could be days before full service was restored.

Other utilities said there were blackouts in portions of Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Virginia and West Virginia.

Flights were delayed and canceled along the East Coast. In New Jersey, arrivals and departures were at least two hours late at Newark Liberty International Airport. Atlantic City’s airport was forced to shut for 35 minutes because of ice on its only run- way.

In Washington, government offices were open but in some cases with reduced staffs. Many offices allowed employees to take the day off or leave early. And most area schools were closed by the first snowfall to blanket the capital in almost two years.

Parents and children built snowmen at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, college students played football as flakes fell near the Washington Monument, and a few people were seen cross-country skiing past the White House.

As darkness approached, families made their way through heavy security to the Ellipse, where President Bush lit the national Christmas tree. Earlier in the day, the president’s dogs romped in the snow in the White House Rose Garden.

In the storm’s path, many businesses closed early. Stores, already facing a shortened Christmas shopping season because of the late Thanksgiving, shut their doors and sent employees home.

But at Rainbow Pharmacy in Manhattan, Assaad Lattouf said he planned to remain dispensing medicines until 9 p.m., when his day usually ends.

He said that he worried the buses home to Clifton, N.J., would not be running and he would be forced to take a cab.

“Normally, the fare runs $45,” he said, “but because of the snow, the driver might ask for double.”

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Times staff writers Henry Weinstein in Los Angeles and Vicki Kemper in Washington contributed to this report.