Big Dig redux: Boston digs out after Blizzard of 2015
Max Gomez shovels his vehicle out at his home in Boston's Charlestown section, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015.(Photo: Elise Amendola, AP)The Blizzard of 2015 turned into Big Dig 2015 in Boston and across much of New England on Wednesday as shovel-toting residents greeted by bright sunshine began the arduous task of returning normalcy to the snow-encased region.The 34.5 inches that fell in Worcester, Mass., made this week's snowstorm the biggest in the city's history. The 24.6 inches measured in Boston made it the biggest January storm on record.Most school districts remained closed Wednesday, and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh urged residents to stay off roads as much as possible to allow access for plows and emergency vehicles."We have more than 800 streets to plow after the sixth largest storm in our history," Walsh said Wednesday. "I'm asking everyone to be patient."Walsh added that he expected the city to be fully operational Thursday."We are going to be fine," he said. "We are going to rebound. We live in Boston and we have to expect snow."The region did slowly come to life Wednesday as roads began to open, flights resumed and trains, buses and subways ran on limited schedules.Still, the relentless force of Tuesday's blizzard stunned even winter-hardened New Englanders. The snow was accompanied by wind gusts in excess of 70 mph. The entire island of Nantucket lost power for hours as the mighty storm blasted an area from eastern Long Island to Maine.In Marshfield, Mass., the storm punched out a 40-to-50-foot section of a seawall. In Newport, R.I., it toppled a 110-foot replica of a Revolutionary War sailing vessel in dry dock, breaking its mast and puncturing its hull.Lunenburg, Hudson, and Auburn Mass., each recorded 3 feet of snow, topping the storm's records from the National Weather Service. In Portland, Maine (23.8 inches) and Providence (19.1 inches), it was their 4th-biggest snowfall on record, according to the weather service."I had to jump out the window because the door only opens one way," Chuck Beliveau said in the hard-hit central Massachusetts town of Westborough. "I felt like a kid again."In Swampscott, Mass., a coastal town northeast of Boston, Jeff Dragon was shoveling his driveway for the third time late Tuesday. Dragon said he likes the exercise he gets from shoveling, even if it seemed never-ending."I was born and raised in New Hampshire, and I haven't seen a storm like this since the early 1970s," he said. "Just the volume — it's crazy."The National Weather Service said the storm tracked 50 to 75 miles farther east than expected — a win for New York City. That didn't save Boston, which already had almost 21 inches of snow Tuesday, making it the eighth biggest snowstorm on record for the city.It was too early to put a price tag on damage losses from the storm, said two insurance firms, Munich Re and Aon Benfield."It's a wicked storm," Jeff Russell said next to a snowdrift threatening to cover a window at his home in Scarborough, Maine.Two deaths on Long Island were tied to the storm by police: a 17-year-old who crashed into a light pole while snow-tubing and an 83-year-old man with dementia who was found dead in his backyard.In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio fended off criticism that the city went too far in closing streets and public transportation in advance of the storm, which dealt the city a glancing blow. Still, Central Park was hit with a healthy 10-inch snowfall.The storm "was real, and it was as big as it was projected to be, but it moved eastward, and thank God for that," de Blasio said in explaining the extraordinary precautions taken by the city. "So the bottom line is we got lucky."The mayor said he would rather err on the side of caution than leave the city strapped. "Would you rather be ahead of the action or behind?" he asked. "Would you rather be safe or unsafe?"Snowplows that traveled from Upstate New York to assist in Manhattan were rerouted to Long Island, which took the brunt of the storm in the Greater New York area. Montauk, on the eastern end of Long Island, got about 2 feet of snow."It feels like a hurricane with snow," said Maureen Keller, who works at an oceanfront resort in Montauk.Contributing: G. Jeffrey MacDonald in Boston; Doyle Rice and Greg Toppo in McLean, Va.; Associated PressGoDaddy's 'despicable' puppy ad pulled from Super BowlJan 28, 2015
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