Nor'easter Deals Windy, Snowy & Stinging Blow To Storm-Weary Tri-State Area
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- It was a snowy, slushy, windy, cold, miserable and long Wednesday night for residents of the Tri-State Area just coming off the devastation of Superstorm Sandy.
CBS 2's Lonnie Quinn said that while the storm would be over by the time people left for work on Thursday morning, the commute would certainly be a "messy one."
The November nor'easter was already responsible for crippling Long Island Rail Road service on Wednesday night and at one point, brought the entire transit system to a standstill. There was extremely limited service as of late Wednesday night, CBS 2's Derricke Dennis reported.
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The storm dropped 3.9 inches of snow in Central Park as of 11 p.m. In fact, the storm was on track to be the biggest snowstorm on record in October or November. The previous record in Central Park for those months was 4.4 inches in November of 1989, CBS 2's Quinn reported.
Snow totals varied across the region, but some, including Monroe, Conn., got hit with nine inches of snow. Armonk, N.Y. received 7.6 inches of snow, while Berkeley Heights, N.J. got 7.5 and Albertson on Long Island got 6 inches.
A high wind warning remained in effect through early Thursday morning. A winter weather advisory was also in effect until 6 a.m.
AccuWeather predicated snowfall totals in the 3-6-inch range across the Tri-State Area.
The nor'easter was being blamed for scattered power outages in the Garden State. PSE&G, still reeling from Superstorm Sandy, was hit with an additional 178,000 outages to restore.
Across the Tri-State, there were more than 684,000 homes and businesses without power, WCBS 880 reported. Of those, 79,000 were Con Ed customers, with the bulk of them in Westchester County.
NYSEG was trying to get close to 1,400 customers back online -- most of them in Westchester and some more in Putnam County.
Orange and Rockland had 12,000 or so offline, while JCP&L crews were working to get 161,000 customers back online.
Connecticut Light and Power had about 2,000 offline, while United Illumination had about 2,300 in the dark.
LIPA had less than 200,000 waiting to get the electricity flowing again with the numbers almost evenly spread across Nassau and Suffolk counties.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was advising air travelers to check their flights before heading to area airports.
Officials said the airports would stay open, but there were a significant number of flight cancellations through Wednesday night and into early Thursday morning at John F. Kennedy International, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty International.
WCBS 880's Rich Lamb reports
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Many residents in Queens neighborhoods still reeling from Sandy decided to stay put to ride out the nor'easter, CBS 2's Weijia Jiang reported.
"We've been through this for eight, nine days now. We're not going anywhere," resident Louis De Carolis said. "We didn't leave for Sandy, we're not gonna leave for a Nor'easter. Not happening."
More than 1,000 heaters were delivered to residents of Broad Channel and the Rockaways on Wednesday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
Meanwhile, former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, who resigned after a scandal on Twitter, was lending a hand as the nor'easter struck. He returned to Twitter to ask for help for Queens, CBS 2's Tony Aiello reported.
Meanwhile, for New York City school students who might have been hoping for yet another day off, Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott said schools will be open on Thursday for all of the city's 1.1 million students. That includes the 43 schools that sustained damage during the wrath of Sandy, plus another 13 that were still without electricity.
Students from 56 schools were re-located to other schools. Five city high school buildings were being used as shelters.
Had enough of the weather? Hey, it's only early November. Please add you thoughts in the comments section below ...
