Winter Storm

Winter Storm Orson Turns Deadly: Heavy Snow, High Winds Doing Damage in Northeast

At a Glance

High winds blew off part of a three-story apartment building's roof in Washington, D.C.
Heavy snow collapsed the roof of a bowling alley in Maine on Sunday.

Winter Storm Orson has claimed at least two lives as it hammers the Northeast with heavy snow and extreme wind gusts.

High winds took down a tree branch that crashed through 22-year-old Shannon Lee Martin's windshield near Mechanicsburg, Pennsyvlania, the Associated Press reports. Cumberland County Coroner Charley Hall told the Associated Press that the Loysville resident died early Monday after the branch struck him in the chest, breaking his ribs and lacerating his heart. The National Weather Service in State College says winds in the area were gusting to about 60 mph at the time Martin was struck.

In Massachusetts, a 60-year-old veteran died Sunday after being struck by a snowplow in the parking lot of a veterans' facility in Bedford, the Boston Globe reports.

Several men at the Bedford Green residence on the VA campus said they learned of their neighbor’s death shortly after the incident. They said he was a Navy veteran who lived alone and mostly kept to himself.

Facility resident Tim White told the paper he regularly saw the man, a Navy vet who kept mostly to himself, and that he was “well-liked around here.”

“We all have that strong bond,” White said Sunday night in the first-floor common room of Bedford Green. “It’s like a fallen brother.”

The strong winds associated with Orson were causing trouble in numerous parts of New England. In Greenwich, Connecticut a driver suffered only minor injuries when a tree crushed the front end of their vehicle.

In Washington, D.C., winds blew off part of a three-story apartment building's roof and downed trees and power lines, according to the Associated Press, not far from where a 66-mph wind gust was recorded at Reagan National Airport. Wind gusts of up to 72 mph have been reported at several locations in the Northeast.

Just north of New York City, a Metro-North train with around 100 passengers struck a fallen tree, damaging the train and hampering service for hours, but causing no injuries, the AP reports. And in Queens, the canopy of a gas station was ripped down as winds gusted up to 60 mph in some areas.

(FORECAST: Winter Storm Orson to Hammer New England With Heavy Snow)

Heavy snow collapsed the roof of a bowling alley In Millinocket, Maine, on Sunday. Resident Ray Cote told the Bangor Daily News he heard “a big whoosh.”

“Someone called 911 and said they heard an explosion but in my opinion it was more like an implosion because of how the front and back of the building are,” Cote told the paper. “I believe that it was caused by the weight of the snow and ice” on the roof.

More than a foot of new snow is expected in northern New England, said weather.com meteorologist Brian Donegan, and heavy snow is expected to last through Monday, hampering travel around the region.

State officials around the Northeast are urging people to stay off the roads to avoid whiteout conditions; a number of crashes were reported from Sunday through early Monday, but there was no word of large pileups or injuries.

“Travel could become difficult during the afternoon hours," Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy said in the update. "If you must travel, motorists are reminded to take it slow and allow for plenty of braking distance between themselves and the vehicles in front of them.”

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said the state Department of Transportation has more than 3,100 pieces of equipment and 700 employees treating and plowing roadways. The governor urged residents to avoid driving and instead use public transportation during the storm.

Malloy’s office released a winter storm update that stated officials are continuing to monitor the water and the Department of Transportation has 624 plow trucks clearing the roads.

The speed limit on the Massachusetts Turnpike was reduced to 40 mph from the New York border to the Worcester area. Speed limits were also reduced in New Jersey on the Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike Sunday.

Nearly all flights in and out of the airport in Manchester, New Hampshire have been canceled, and in Maine, the Portland Jetport was closed Monday, the Associated Press reports.

Schools around the region delayed or canceled classes Monday, including in Boston and in New York state, from Albany to areas outside New York City.

Downed power lines and trees closed roads and caused outages. Dominion Power reports about 13,000 customers without power in Virginia, mostly in northern Virginia. Outages prompted Fairfax County Public Schools to open two hours late.

Maryland officials reported about 17,000 outages overnight, but about 5,000 remained by dawn.