A storm spread a blanket of snow up to a foot thick across much of the Northeast on Friday, snarling commutes, closing schools and piling up the flakes so fast that shovel crews could barely keep up.
At least five fatal crashes were blamed on the storm, including one that killed a New Jersey couple when a sport utility vehicle crashed through their bedroom.
On Cape Cod, the wind was so strong it flipped a single-engine plane upside down at Barnstable, Mass., Airport.
Along the Massachusetts-New Hampshire line, the snow fell at a rate of 2 inches per hour. It also fell quickly throughout Connecticut, lowering visibility on highways and secondary roads.
“You shovel it, and it comes right back,” said Joe Parise, who was clearing the steps of the federal courthouse in New Haven, Conn. “You can’t stay ahead of it. You shovel, you come back in an hour, you shovel again, that’s all you can do.”
In Maine, the community of Kennebunk recorded more than 4 inches of snow in a single hour.
The snow gave high school teacher Ron Ruth the day off Friday, and he was digging out his house and cars in Cornwall, Pa., about 25 miles east of Harrisburg.
“I don’t mind the first couple, but when you have to do this a bunch of times during the season, it gets to be a drag,” said Ruth, 32.
The storm, which had left up to 10 inches of snow in the Midwest as it moved toward the coast, left as much as 14 inches in parts of New Hampshire, a foot in portions of Massachusetts and New York, and 10 inches in northwest New Jersey.
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