Snowstorm attack before the vaccines

By Alex P. Vidal

 

“Snow provokes responses that reach right back to childhood.”

—Andy Goldsworthy

 

WE will finally have the vaccines in the Big Apple.

But first, we have been warned of heavy snow and freezing rain in the Big Apple on December 16 and 17 (Wednesday and Thursday) even as the forecast was still on track as of this writing for a significant winter storm to hit the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and New England.

The warning came before the “death blow” (the description given by restaurant owners in New York City of the guidelines issued by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on the suspension of indoor dining) that started on December 14.

It also came as New Yorkers were preparing to start next week the largest emergency immunization plan in its history, delivering the first doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine to 170,000 high-risk frontline medical workers just as nationwide deaths and hospitalizations reach all-time highs.

New York City, which is still the hardest-hit city in the world with over 24,000 deaths, will get the largest delivery of those doses, for nearly 72,000 people, but it may still be months before the general public can get immunized.

Plans for rolling out the vaccine are still changing, and not everything has been made public.

The Pfizer vaccine was approved for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration on December 11, the first one to clear that hurdle. Moderna is set to deliver another vaccine for 346,000 people by December 21, pending FDA approval, with other candidates from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson still on track to get approved and distributed in the coming weeks.

 

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More than 60 million people were reportedly under winter alerts, with forecasts of snow and wind that could snarl travel and knock out power to millions.

This will be the first major snowstorm warning this year, the first since the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic inflicted terrible harm on the people worldwide with the United States leading in the chart with 16.8 million cases and 304,000 deaths as of December 16.

The winter weather advisories or warnings have stretched from northeastern Georgia and western North Carolina to New York City and parts of Maine on Tuesday evening.

The National Weather Service warned us the storm brought snow and slick roads to the Plains, although it was set to taper off there Tuesday night.

Oklahoma City got 2.7 inches of snow, and the Nebraska State Patrol reported “plenty of slide-offs on I-80” Tuesday morning and urged drivers to be careful.

On Wednesday, the storm was feared to reach the East Coast.

During the morning, a wintry mix will break out from western North Carolina to northern Virginia, while snow fills in from Maryland through southern New York.

NBC’s Kathryn Prociv reported that “as the day progresses, the storm will march north on the I-95 corridor bringing with it a mess of rain or snow and even the potential for some sleet and freezing rain.”

On the southern side of the storm system, heavy rain and strong thunderstorms could affect the Southeast to coastal Carolinas, the NBC said.

By Wednesday night, a wintry mix will be possible for cities like Washington and Philadelphia while New York City and Boston will likely stay predominantly all snow.

 

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Heavy snowfall rates of 1-3 inches per hour are possible, including for the New York City area, and gusty winds could cause whiteout conditions and the risk of power outages, it was reported here.

The snow was expected to continue through the morning hours for the Northeast and New England and will end for all locations except eastern Maine by sunset by Thursday.

A widespread 3 to 6 inches of snow will be possible from central Virginia up through Maine.

A swath of six to 12 inches or more, and higher amounts locally, was forecast from Maryland up through southern Massachusetts with the highest snow totals possible along and just west of the I-95 corridor.

Some isolated locations at higher elevations could potentially see up to 2 feet of snow from eastern West Virginia, western Maryland into east-central Pennsylvania and northwest New Jersey.

For the areas across North Carolina and Virginia that could get the wintry mix of sleet and freezing rain, up to 0.25 inches of ice accumulation is possible, which could cause power outages.

Blizzard conditions may also be reportedly possible for coastal areas, especially eastern Long Island and Cape Cod, where wind gusts could exceed 40-50 mph.

 

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)