Travel Becomes Hazardous as Winter Storm Hits Northeast

A quick-moving snowstorm hit the Northeast on Tuesday, canceling and delaying flights, making roads slippery, and prompting many school districts to cancel classes or switch to remote learning—or at least try to switch. In New York City, the online learning system that serves the nation's largest school district experienced technical problems first thing in the morning, preventing many of the 915,000 students from logging in, the AP reports. More than 1,000 flights were canceled Tuesday morning, mostly at airports in the New York City area and Boston. Accidents were reported across the region and several states banned tandem and empty tractor-trailers from highways.

Some areas in Pennsylvania and Connecticut were hit with 15 inches of snow, while other parts saw smaller accumulations than anticipated, the National Weather Service said. The Massachusetts coast saw high wind gusts, the agency said. Throughout the region, officials urged people to take precautions including staying off the roads.

• In Connecticut, Gov. Ned Lamont ordered all executive branch office buildings closed to the public for the day, and all state courts were closed.
• The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation temporarily reduced the speed limit on several interstates to 45 mph in the east-central region of the state because of the storm.
• Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee signed an executive order shuttering state government offices Tuesday and banning tractor-trailer travel on all interstates and state roads beginning at midnight. McKee said he issued the tractor-trailer ban in coordination with Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York.
• Boston schools were closed and a parking ban was in effect until 4 pm. Similar closures and bans were put in place in other cities and towns.

"It's been a quiet winter, so it's kind of welcoming," Ricky Smith said as he made his way to a construction job in New York City. "I just hope nobody gets hurt." The city's decision to push ahead with remote learning instead of declaring a snow day drew criticism from many parents and students, and the problems with the online system exacerbated the discontent. School officials said they were working with IBM to fix the issue, which they said involved authentication services. New York Mayor Eric Adams defended the decision to go remote in the schools, saying it was necessary because of learning losses during the pandemic. (More snowstorm stories.)