Storm along East Coast dumps snow, snarls traffic

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM AND DAN GELSTON

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A powerful storm that crept across the country dumped a mix of snow, freezing rain and sleet on the Mid-Atlantic region and headed northeast Sunday, turning NFL playing fields in Pennsylvania into winter wonderlands, threatening as much as a foot of snow in Delaware and New Jersey and raising concerns about a messy morning commute.

The storm forced the cancellation of thousands of flights across the U.S. and slowed traffic on roads, leading to a number of accidents, including a fatal crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike near Morgantown that led to a series of fender-benders involving 50 cars.

What was forecast in the Philadelphia area to be a tame storm system with about an inch of snow followed by rain mushroomed into a full-blown snowstorm that snarled traffic along Interstate 95 in Pennsylvania from the Delaware to New Jersey state lines.

Paul Jones, 24, a youth hockey coach from Warminster in the Philadelphia suburbs, was on his way to a game in Lancaster when he got stuck - along with his fiancee, another coach and three players - in a major backup on the turnpike.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131208/DAAIFJB01.html

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Detroit Lions head coach Jim Schwartz walks the sidelines as snow falls during the first half of an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2013, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

[freshwest]

1. Stay safe as you can, folks! Winter isn't joking this year over there! (but does here at times) n/t

[sweetapogee]

7. I guess this means I cannot

drive like an asshole today?

I'm home bound anyway so I guess I'll survive.

[LiberalElite]

2. WOW - NYC got just a coating nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Dozens of massive pile ups in several states, I read.

A shame people have to drive in these winter storms.
I have always been lucky enough to have options of staying in, usually because I could not get out of the driveway!

[Samantha]

4. Here in College Park, MD my internet was down for almost 2 days

I endured a severe DU withdrawal but am now recovering....

We have had a lot of sleet and problems with ice, a little snow, but are still under a winter storm advisory for tomorrow. My power has stayed on and that was the biggest concern I had.

Sam

[elleng]

5. WOW, NO problems in Silver Spring! Comcast???

2 days??? What happened there yesterday???

[Samantha]

9. I don't know what happened except the message Verizon gave me was there was an outage on

something like Channel 49. They expected to have it restored by 9:00 the next morning. At 1 pm the next day, I called again and got another message about Channel 50??? having an outage and it would be restored like within 12 hours. I suspect some frozen lines had something to do with it somewhere. I have Verizon FIOS.

But here's the thing. They sent me 3 emails saying it was restored. These emails were in my regular Verizon email package, which of course I could not access unless I went to another computer somewhere. Since I was not leaving the house, I just decided to wait it out. Then I got three automated phone calls saying it had been restored. So I booted up, and guess what -- This page can not be found.

Spent the next half an hour working with Verizon and finally got it up. The best thing is the Power did not go out. I was really worried about that. But my telephone lines are above ground, so my phone worked and my cable stayed on; my internet lines are below ground and that was out. Go figure.

Sam

[freshwest]

8. Hate sleet, freezing rain and ice. So your ISP is aerial (off a pole)? Figures it'd go out. ,/t

[Samantha]

10. I never really focused on the difference between sleet and freezing rain until yesterday

The newsman said to hope for sleet rather than freezing rain which would lead to more power outrages. There is a difference???

My internet lines are supposed to be underground, that is the odd thing. But I had heard there were wide power outages when the storm had previously hit. I just assumed the "feed" was down. My cable and phone stayed on...???? They are off the pole????

Sam

[MissMillie]

12. Sleet vs. freezing rain

http://www.weather.com/news/weather-winter/sleet-freezing-rain-difference-20121123

[freshwest]

13. If you have a pole nearby with several lines coming to your house, such as:

A twist to your breaker and a connection where your phone lines separate for different rooms and see a thick cable near that, your ISP is aerial.

I've lived where all was aerial or all underground to the home, but fed by aerial. In urban areas, power coming from manholes or large power boxes in the yard, with phone and cable coming from smaller boxes are underground, but not at the source of the power.

There's usually a combination in urban and suburban areas. In my urban area, we pay to have all utilities underground because of our annual gales.

Even though we are getting power, phone and cable (ISP) from underground, especially with power, there will be spans of aerial lines. They go down, and we're out.

The kind that you don't see coming to your home, a three wire twist; those are the big uninsulated lines that go to the generation source. At any point, ice will build up, and do one of several things.

It can break the lines from the weight (a common thing where I once lived) and those lines had to be restrung or spliced. Or the weight can cause lines to sag and short out with other lines or ground out altogether.

OTOH, your local ISP servers may have lost power to operate. The older style phone landlines did not go out in power outages as the phone company had big batteries to keep the current going in the central office.

My land line phone is bundled with my internet. Power goes out, it's gone. Just a few ideas.

Glad you made it back!

[tofuandbeer]

6. Sorry for the problems with the snow, but I really enjoyed watching the Eagles game this AM. :)

[MissMillie]

11. I was white-knuckled on my way in this morning

driving across Rte. 2 in north central Massachusetts. Once I headed south on 190, things got better.


But Rte. 2 was all slushy. I think I never once made it over 30 mph, and in some spots went even slower than that (everyone who grew up driving in this stuff knows that, if you can, you should avoid hitting your breaks).

I'm never so worried about my own driving. It's everyone else's stupid behavior that scares the crap out of me.