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A major snowstorm hit the U.S. East Coast for the first few hours, creating additional challenges amid a coronavirus pandemic and a massive vaccination rollout that is taking place across the region.
The winter storm, moving over New York, Pennsylvania and other northeastern states, leaves millions of people facing more than a foot of snow a week before Christmas, which could disrupt coronavirus testing and delay Christmas deliveries. .
It also left more than 60 million people under severe weather warnings from Maine to South Carolina.
New York City, if the storm were to hit it as badly as predicted, would face the most snow from a storm in more than four years, after it received two feet in January 2016.
New York and Pennsylvania state officials said they were prepared to deal with severe weather to make sure vaccine delivery programs were moving forward as planned.
Delivery companies FedEx and UPS said they had also implemented measures to mitigate the effects of the storm.
Snowfall rates in both states were 5 cm per hour, with more than 30 cm in total, according to the US National Weather Service (NWS).
He said snow could reach up to two feet in some parts of the states, and both sent plows to keep roads clear.
Boston, the most populous city in Massachusetts, imposed an emergency and issued a parking ban on key roads for workers.
“There is much confidence that this major winter storm will have significant impacts including travel disruptions and power outages across much of the northern Mid-Atlantic, southern New York and south to central New England,” NSW said in a tweet last night.
Despite the possible disruption, people rushed to play in New York City’s famous Times Square as it was covered in white.
While the snow brought joy to some, restaurants piled up chairs and tables and closed after a snow alert effectively ended cookouts – the usual last hope for some business owners due to distancing rules. Social.
In Pennsylvania, the department of transportation told drivers to limit trips and introduced new speed restrictions to prevent accidents.
Hundreds of schools announced that they would close and retreat again to online learning, bolstered by the experience of the pandemic.
Airlines also canceled hundreds of flights yesterday, preventing many, some who were returning home for Christmas, from traveling.
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