A dangerous winter storm brought significant snowfall, strong thunderstorms and blustery winds to the East Coast on Monday — just hours after knocking out power to tens of thousands and coating highways in treacherous ice across the Southeast.
A foot or more of snow had fallen in parts of New York state, Ohio and Pennsylvania by Monday morning, forecasters said.
Buffalo had almost 17 inches by 10 a.m. and the city was advising people not to travel unless necessary.
New York City was spared most — if not all — of the snowfall after thunderstorms washed away the inch of snow that fell overnight.
The National Weather Service said spotty showers and snow showers for the Big Apple might continue through Monday night.
The Long Island and Connecticut coastal areas were expected to be hit with gale conditions with wind gusts forecast to top out around 60 mph.
It comes as tens of thousands of customers were without power in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida overnight as Winter Storm Izzy ripped through the Southeast.
Highway patrols reported hundreds of vehicle accidents as roadways turned to ice and thousands of flights were canceled across the region.
“It’s a very expansive storm,” Weather Prediction Center meteorologist Brian Hurley said.
“A lot of real estate is going to get 4 to 8 inches of snow and a lot more are also going to get some of that ice accumulation.”
As much as 10 inches of snow was dumped on North Carolina, where the highway patrol responded to 300 car crashes and nearly 800 calls for service by midafternoon Sunday.
Two people, both 41, were killed when their car drove off the road and into trees just outside Raleigh, authorities said.
A tractor-trailer also slid off a Highway 147 overpass in Durham, North Carolina, landing vertically on the highway below. The truck driver was stable after sustaining non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
Wet roadways in the South were expected to refreeze Monday and hazardous driving conditions were forecast for a large portion of the East Coast.
Plow trucks were already scattered along highways up the East Coast by Monday in preparation.
Severe thunderstorms in Florida sparked multiple tornados, including one that was packing 118 mph winds that destroyed dozens of mobile homes.
Meanwhile, 130,000 customers were still without power in South Carolina, North Carolina, West Virginia, Georgia and Pennsylvania on Monday morning, according to poweroutage.us.
More than 3,000 flights were canceled in the US on Sunday — and nearly 4,000 had been axed by 1 p.m. Monday, the live tracking site FlightAware showed.
With Post wires
