National Weather Service Director Louis Uccellini speaks during a news
conference on a winter storm forecast on January 21, 2016 at the NOAA
Center for Weather and Climate Prediction in College Park, Maryland. A
winter snowstorm is forecasted for the East Coast this weekend with
prediction of up to 30 inches of snow for the DC area. PHOTO | ALEX WONG
|
GETTY IMAGES | AFP
WASHINGTON, Friday
The eastern
US braced on Friday for a monstrous blizzard that has prompted
thousands of flight cancellations and the looming shutdown of
Washington’s public transportation system.
The US
capital and the surrounding area could see up to 61 centimetres of snow
accumulate in a short time on Friday and Saturday, coupled with fierce
winds and blinding squalls, weather experts said.
The federal government in Washington was set to close at noon on Friday because of the storm.
As
several states made frantic preparations, as far south as Kentucky, the
governor said he too was shutting down government offices on Friday.
FLIGHTS CANCELLED
So
far, more than 4,500 flights originally scheduled for Friday and
Saturday within, into or out of the US, have been cancelled, according
to the flight monitor flightaware.com.
Tens of millions
of people could be affected by snow, and millions more by ice and other
dangerous conditions, the National Weather Service said.
“You
put all the ingredients together, you can get a storm like this and
it’s happening in real time,” NWS director Louis Uccellini said.
With
authorities warning the storm could bury Washington under more snow
than it has seen in nearly a century, officials announced they would
take the unusual step of closing down the city’s rail and bus system
from tonight until Monday morning.
The Metro system -
the second busiest in the US after New York - serves about 700,000
customers a day in Washington, Maryland and Virginia
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