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The White House blanketed by heavy snow - Source: Reuters
Heavy snowfall has hit the American East Coast, forcing most
flights to be canceled in Washington and Baltimore, killing one
person and hampering holiday shoppers on the last weekend before
Christmas.
Up to 56 cms of snow was expected to fall in the
Baltimore-Washington area and a blizzard warning has been issued by
the National Weather Service, with wind gusts of 64 kph
forecast.
The snowstorm, expected to dump more snow on the region than any storm since at least February 2003, could take a big bite out of retail sales on one of the busiest shopping weekend of the year.
At least one person has died in the storm.
The Virginia Department of Emergency Management says a 68-year-old woman died in a car crash in southern Virginia.
Snow was falling at a rate of about two inches an hour early on Sunday in the capital region with whiteout conditions reported throughout the area.
Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty has declared a snow emergency.
The District of Columbia government has asked residents to stay at home as the U.S. capital braced for what one TV station dubbed "The Shopper Stopper Storm."
Fenty is glad the storm came on a weekend.
"Mayors never want to have 20 inches of snow. But if you're
going to get 20 inches, you have it on a weekend where people don't
have to get anywhere, they don't have to get their kids anywhere,"
he says.
Washington has announced the closure of above-ground Metrorail
subway operations and stopped all bus services because streets were
rapidly becoming impassable.
The city's Reagan National airport has been closed and many airlines have canceled their flights from Dulles International Airport.
Baltimore-Washington International Airport is open but the majority of the flights have been canceled.
Further north, the Philadelphia International Airport has been experiencing six-hour delays.
New York's LaGuardia Airport is also experiencing numerous airline cancellations.
Even NFL football has been hit by the storm.
It is not clear if the Chicago Bears, whose charter flight
was canceled because of the snow, would make it to Baltimore for
their weekend game against the Ravens.
The storm is expected to pass through the mid-Atlantic region and
blanket points north including Philadelphia and New York City later
in the coming days.
Forecasters are predicting 20-30 cms of snow for the New York
metropolitan area, with higher amounts possible on the New Jersey
coast and eastern Long Island.
Retailers did brisk business on salt and snow shovels as early as
Friday morning as residents braced for the storm.
Trains have also been affected by the snow.
Amtrak spokesperson Vernae Graham says trains along the northeast corridor between Boston and Washington were delayed by 30 to 60 minutes.
There was a two- to three-hour delay on long-distance trains.
In Virginia, Governor Tim Kaine has declared a state of
emergency and the department of transportation is urging motorists
to stay off roads, saying that many roads and many interstates in
the western part of the state are considered treacherous.
Parts of highway 81 - a major north-south highway in western
Virginia - are closed in the Shenandoah Valley area.
