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6 dead as winter storm, floods batter US

A flooded car sits in Hough's Neck due to a strong coastal storm on March 2, 2018 in Quincy, Massachusetts. (Photo by AFP)

At least five people were killed after a major winter storm pounded the US East Coast on Friday, with strong winds, heavy rain and snow disrupting thousands of flights and forcing the closure of federal government offices in Washington.

Coastal flooding alerts were issued from New Jersey to Massachusetts with winter weather advisories, winter storm warnings and high wind warnings in effect from the Northeast to the Mid-Atlantic, the National Weather Service said.

Winter Storm Riley dropped more than a foot (30.5 centimeters) of snow in the western and northern parts of New York state, as heavy rain lashed coastal areas. The storm is expected to taper off overnight or by early Saturday.

Police in James City County, southern Virginia, confirmed a 44-year-old man was killed when a tree fell on the truck he was traveling in -- while in Chesterfield County, south of Richmond, authorities said a six-year-old boy was killed when a fallen tree struck him as he slept in his home.

Outside Baltimore, an elderly woman, 77, was also killed when she was hit by a large tree branch in Kingsville, Baltimore County Police & Fire Department said in a statement.

Meanwhile, local media said fallen trees also killed an 11-year-old boy in Putnam Valley, New York, and a man in his 70s in Newport, Rhode Island.

Workers clear fallen tree limbs on the National Mall after strong winds hit Washington, DC, on March 2, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

More than 3,000 domestic and international flights were canceled on Friday and more than 2,400 others were delayed, according to the website FlightAware.

More than half the flights scheduled to arrive and depart from New York's LaGuardia Airport were canceled, with sweeping disruptions at Boston Logan International and New York’s two other area airports, Newark and John F. Kennedy International.

Amtrak, the US public railway service, announced that "for safety" all services along the northeast corridor were temporarily suspended.

Trains already en route between the US capital, New York, and Boston would continue to their destinations and hold, it said.

In Massachusetts, authorities reported more than 100,000 power outages by mid-afternoon, warning that additional power cuts were likely and ordered some coastal communities to evacuate, warning that they expected homes to sustain significant damage.

A winter storm that roared through California left a snowboarder dead and sent an avalanche crashing down on five people Friday at a Sierra Nevada ski resort, but the danger of another deadly mudslide eased in a devastated coastal community.

Dozens of rescuers and rescue dogs rushed to the scene after an avalanche hit the Squaw Valley Ski Resort near Lake Tahoe near the Nevada state line.

One man was hospitalized with a serious lower body injury, another person was treated for injuries and released while three other people escaped injury, the resort said in a statement.

(Source: Agencies)


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