A severe winter blizzard that swept across the northeastern United States has claimed two lives in Maryland while triggering massive travel disruptions and widespread power outages throughout the region. The storm brought heavy snowfall, strong winds, and hazardous conditions, forcing authorities to impose travel restrictions and close schools in several states.
In Calvert County, Maryland, a falling tree struck a vehicle on Sunday afternoon, killing Michael Simpson, 60, and Virginia Quesenberry, 43, after the tree collapsed onto the roadway, according to local authorities. The incident occurred amid intense storm conditions that affected large parts of the state.
Maryland recorded snowfall totals of up to 16 inches (40 centimeters), while Providence, Rhode Island, experienced its heaviest snowstorm on record with 37.9 inches. New York City saw more than 20 inches of snow, making the blizzard the ninth-largest winter storm in the city’s history.
Travel bans and school closures remained in effect in Rhode Island and parts of Massachusetts as communities worked to clear roads and recover from the storm. In New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani implemented a travel ban over the weekend to reduce dangerous road conditions. He stated that 2,600 sanitation workers were deployed to plow streets, supported by an additional 1,400 emergency workers clearing sidewalks and bus stops. Schools in New York resumed in-person instruction on Tuesday, while some districts in neighboring New Jersey and Pennsylvania opted for delays or virtual learning.
Air travel was heavily impacted, with more than 5,000 flights canceled on Monday alone. By Tuesday morning, over 2,000 additional flights had been canceled and nearly 1,000 delayed. The most affected airports included Boston’s Logan International Airport and New York’s JFK and LaGuardia airports.
The storm also disrupted daily life in Massachusetts, where approximately 250,000 residents remained without electricity as of Tuesday morning. In the coastal town of Scituate, officials reported that half the community was without power and warned residents to prepare for several days of outages due to ongoing strong winds hampering restoration efforts.
In Boston, the extreme weather forced the Boston Globe to suspend its print edition for the first time in 153 years because delivery operations were impossible under the storm conditions.
The powerful “nor’easter” has since moved away from the United States and into eastern coastal areas of Canada, though meteorologists warn that strong winds are expected to continue in the affected regions.
