North-East US hit by massive snow storm

The Great Lakes and Northeastern United States are being hit by a severe winter storm that is bringing travel to a halt.

New York is expecting 30 centimetres of snow accumulation. The city officials warned residents to prepare for the worst after the forecasters said the storm could be the biggest blizzard in a century. Boston could be deep in 60 centimetres of snow.

The city closed all schools on Friday and the local government had asked all drivers to stay off the highways. The major US airlines plan to quit flying in the New York-area airports, Boston, and other big Northeastern airports. US’s Amtrak rail said its Northeast trains will stop running Friday afternoon.

Widespread power failures are feared, along with flooding in coastal areas still recovering from Superstorm Sandy in October.

Carrie Ciulia, New York City Resident, said, "We’re maybe trying to get out of the city early if possible today, but I don’t know if that’s going to happen since we both have to work. Hopefully we’ll get to the grocery store, buy some things, but we’ll scrounge around our fridge and find something to eat, I guess."

Sunayana Dyer, Flying to India, said, "So far we are scheduled to be on the 10:45 out of Boston to Cincinnati. We were originally on the one-o’clock, but we didn’t want to chance that being cancelled because we have a lot of connections so, so far it looks like we might make it out."

(Xinhua)