NEW YORK--A winter storm marched up the U.S. East Coast on Wednesday, delivering a disruptive blow to transportation systems and a welcome day off for some school kids, but not for many who have been learning remotely during the pandemic.
By midafternoon, the Nor'easter had brought a wintry mix to Washington and wind-whipped snow to New York City, parts of Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania as it threatened a swath of the country that is home to more than 50 million people.
The sprawling system could dump up to 2 feet (60 cm) of snow in an area stretching from eastern Pennsylvania to New York's Catskill Mountains, with lesser amounts of a foot (30 cm) or more in the rest of the Northeast, forecasters said. Parts of Virginia and North Carolina will be blanketed with a thin later of ice while areas in the Mid-Atlantic region closer to the coast will get only rain before the storm moves out to sea from Boston late on Thursday, they said.
Officials throughout the area urged motorists to stay off the roads and residents to stay home. New Jersey Transit drove home that point by suspending bus and rail service in the northern part of the state after Wednesday's evening rush hour.
With the first flakes landing in the New York area by midafternoon, the region's three busy airports reported that 20% to 30% of flights had already been cancelled and more were expected as accumulations mounted. Widespread power outages were also possible because of strong winds, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities said.
Normally, major winter storms in the forecast meant children could count on a getting a day off of school, an especially welcome relief for those facing exams. But pandemic-induced remote learning has made the "snow day" less of a sure thing.
“I’m sad, not only for me but for the kids that will grow up without ever experiencing snow days,” said Saorla Rafferty, a freshman at High Tech High School in Secaucus, New Jersey, where administrators said snow would not halt online learning.
"In the old days even if there was a speck of snow the schools would shut," added Naiya Gardner, a fourth grader in Bethesda, Maryland, where the school district told students to expect "virtual learning" to go on as scheduled.
But a school system in Jefferson County, West Virginia, within commuting distance of Washington, took a different approach, declaring proudly in a note widely shared on social media that it is shutting down on Wednesday in honour of snow. "For just a moment, we can all let go of the worry of making up for the many things we missed by making sure this is one thing our kids won't lose this year," schools Superintendent Bondy Shay Gibson said in a note to the community.
"So please, enjoy a day of sledding and hot chocolate and cozy fires," Gibson said.
