**LIVE BLOG** 11 Dead as Hercules Throttles America

**LIVE BLOG** 11 Dead as Hercules Throttles America

The nor’easter storm impacted nearly 100 million people on Thursday evening, causing nine deaths, numerous flight delays, and shutting down major highway arteries from the midwest to the northeast. The storm dumped 7 inches of snow in New York City; 13 inches in Boston; 10 inches in Lakewood, New Jersey; 17 inches in Chicago; nearly a foot in Michigan; and two feet of snow in cities north of Boston in addition to brining in sub-zero temperatures after the windchill is considered. 

Stay tuned to Breitbart News for live updates of the storm’s aftermath.

UPDATE: Cars, Shovels Stolen; Woman Sexually Assaulted While Helping Friend Shovel Snow:

The snow storm has also brought out the worst in people. One man was carjacked in New York in broad daylight while clearing out snow. One man in Massachusetts who shovels snow for his neighbors got his snow shovel stolen. He said the thief left a smaller–and useless–shovel in its place, as if he was trading up. 

And one woman was reportedly horrifically “sexually assaulted a woman during the snowstorm Thursday night” in New Jersey when a man reportedly “offered the victim money in exchange for help with shoveling. He then dragged her by her hair into a vacant house and threatened her with a handgun before sexually assaulting her,” according to The Asbury Park Press. The suspect is still on the loose

UPDATE: Snow Storm Cancels Meetings at United Nations:

All meetings were reportedly “canceled Friday at the United Nations headquarters complex on New York’s East Side.” The U.N. continues to push global warming while ignoring the fact that the planet has stopped warming during the last 15 years.

UPDATE: Christian Science Monitor profiles one mother’s “Herculean effort to help homeless” during the winter storm. 

UPDATE: Hypothermia Symptoms (via the Mayo Clinic):

Shivering is your body’s automatic defense against cold temperature — an attempt to warm itself. Constant shivering is a key sign of hypothermia. Signs and symptoms of moderate to severe hypothermia include:

Shivering

Clumsiness or lack of coordination

Slurred speech or mumbling

Stumbling

Confusion or difficulty thinking

Poor decision making, such as trying to remove warm clothes

Drowsiness or very low energy

Apathy or lack of concern about one’s condition

Progressive loss of consciousness

Weak pulse

Slow, shallow breathing

Update: The Donald:

UPDATE: NFL Has No Predetermined Temperature That Would Postpone a Game

“We don’t have a number, no,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told ProFootballTalk, which reported on the limited options the NFL has for the playoff game in Green Bay between the Packers and the San Francisco 49ers:

Currently, the Weather.com forecast calls for a high temperature — a high temperature — of five degrees below zero.  The low for Sunday will be 20 below.

For the legendary Ice Bowl, the game-time temperature was 13 degrees below zero.

[…]

Making the situation more serious, the National Weather Service has issued a wind chill advisory from 6:00 p.m. CT Saturday until 6:00 p.m. CT Sunday, at which time the advisory converts to a warning:  “FROST BITE ON EXPOSED SKIN COULD OCCUR WITHIN 30 MINUTES SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY… AND AS LITTLE AS 10 MINUTES SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY MORNING.”

[…]

For all parties involved, there are few viable options. The NFL could play the game on Saturday, when the temperature will spike to a balmy 25 during the day. That would entail possibly moving one of the Saturday playoff games to Sunday, or playing three on Saturday, with the Green Bay game perhaps landing in the currently vacant 1:00 p.m. ET time slot.  Alternative, the NFL could flip the order of the games on Sunday, with 49ers-Packers kicking off (and in turn ending) well before the wind chill warning kicks in at 6:00 p.m. local time.

Moving the game to Monday definitely won’t work. That day, the projected high temperature is 14 below.

UPDATE: Dangerous Temperatures Expected on Friday Evening on East Coast:

Baltimore: 9 degrees

Philadelphia:  4 degrees

New York:  3 degrees

Boston:  -4 degrees

UPDATE: Boston Hit With Meteorological ‘Bomb’ 

The “atmospheric pressure within the center of storm’s circulation” reportedly “dropped from 1012 mb down to 986 mb in 24 hours – the textbook traits of a meteorological ‘bomb'”.

Boston reportedly had “14.6” of snow on the ground as of 7:00 a.m. at Logan Airport.”

UPDATE: Southern California may not be in the midst of a snowstorm, but travelers flying out of LAX have still been impacted:

UPDATE: Video the minor league ballpark that was on fire in sub-zero temperatures. Fire fighters reportedly had trouble putting out the blaze because of the bone-chilling temperatures. 

UPDATE: De Blasio Enters the ‘Freak Show’

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who ripped former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg for his handling of previous storms, is trying to present himself as the anti-Bloomberg. John Doherty, who has been the sanitation commissioner Mayor Ed Koch’s administration in the 1980s, “said de Blasio has handled the storm no differently from his previous bosses.”

De Blasio’s son, Dante, whose afro the mainstream press was infatuated with during the campaign, is in high school, and Dante’s friends reportedly lobbied him on social media to get his dad to close the city’s schools, which de Blasio eventually decided to do:

The new mayor admitted that his son, Dante, a high school student, lobbied heavily for closing the city’s schools. On social media, Dante said friends were asking him to pull strings to get the shutdown done. But de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, tweeted a photo of a shovel and snow salts Thursday night to illustrate “what Dante will be doing if he does not go to school.”

De Blasio even threatened to strip during his Friday morning press conference after he shoveled snow at his home in the morning.

UPDATE: Eleven people have now died due to the nor’easter that impacted nearly 100 million people on Thursday evening.

UPDATE: Obama wakes up in paradise while east coast freezes

The east coast woke up to bone-chilling and dangerous temperatures on Friday. In Hawaii, President Barack Obama is waking up in Kailua, and it is 78 degrees. The Obamas are at a luxury estate that costs about $3,500 a day to rent, which comes out to about $56,000 for the 16-day vacation. The Obamas are reportedly paying for the vacation out of pocket. 

UPDATE: Montana Facing Dangerous Wind Chills This Weekend

UPDATE: Chicago May Be Colder than Barrow, Alaska on Monday

According to NBC:

On Monday, Chicago could be colder than Barrow, Ala. Models shows Barrow’s forecast high is 0 degrees, while Chicago’s is -7.

The chill persists Tuesday as temperatures remain well below zero and -5 overnight. Low temps could dip to -15, and wind chill values will plunge even lower, National Weather Service meteorologists predicted. Chicago officials warned of the dangerous effects.

“The current snowfall and extreme cold temperatures expected next week pose significant health risks to residents,” Dr. Suzet McKinney said Thursday.

UPDATE: Cape Cod Facing Flood Risk

UPDATE: Time-lapse video of snowstorm in New York City:

UPDATE: Geography Fail. CNN thinks New  York is in Boston and vice versa. CNN’s ratings are at a 20-year low.

UPDATE: Too Cool for School: All Schools in Minnesota Will Be Closed on Monday: 

Governor Mark Dayton ordered all K-12 public schools closed Monday to protect Minnesota school children from forecasted dangerously cold weather. The National Weather Service is predicting that most of the state will experience the coldest temperatures in a decade with lows reaching -30 degrees and wind chills predicted to reach as low as -50 degrees. High temperatures from International Falls to Rochester are forecast to reach only -15 degrees.

The decision to close schools across the state was announced Monday in order to give school administrators, teachers, and parents sufficient time to plan for these closures. The Minnesota Department of Education will be coordinating with school districts throughout the day to notify the public about Monday’s school closings.

A Minnesota Governor has not ordered schools closed across the state since Arne Carlson did it on January 18 of 1994. On that day morning temps registered near -30.

Read more details here.

UPDATE: Click here for the latest info on flight delays and cancellations.

UPDATE: Snowmen visited the U.S. Capitol: 

UPDATE (12: 30 PM EST) Minor League Ballpark on Fire in Sub-Zero Temperatures:

MLive.com: Dispatchers are requesting a full fire response to Fifth Third Ballpark on a report of a fire inside one of the guest suites inside the stadium area.

UPDATE (12: 05 PM EST): SNOWFALL TOTALS: Click here to see the snowfall totals in your region.

UPDATE (12: 01 PM EST): Eastern Seaboard Expected to Be Hit With Another Storm by End of Weekend:

UPDATE (11: 45 AM EST): Parts of Maine Will Feel Like 45 Degrees Below Zero: Severe Hypothermia Risk

In Maine, according to the AP:

Forecasters say the wind chill could make it feel like 45 degrees below zero on Friday in parts of northern Maine. Authorities warn that people who don’t dress properly risk frostbite and hypothermia. Caribou hit 28 below early Thursday, breaking the old record of minus-20 for the date.

UPDATE (11: 35 AM EST): Does PETA Care More About Animals than Humans? 

In Minnesota, PETA sent women dressed in lettuce bikinis to protest while the state is experiencing its coldest temperatures in twenty years. 

UPDATE (11: 30 AM EST): MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Complains about Drudge-fueled ‘Snow-Trolling’

Global warming is one of the the elite left’s favorite religions:

UPDATE (10: 50 AM EST): More Snow than Expected in DC

From the famed Capital Weather Gang:

Thursday night’s snowstorm mostly overachieved throughout the region, putting down about 2-5 inches. Some areas east and northeast of town (towards the Chesapeake Bay and Baltimore) and well west and northwest of town picked up 4-6 inches.

UPDATE (10: 45 AM EST): Packer Fans Not Likely to Wear Bikinis–if They Even Show Up

Dilemma for Green Bay Packer fans, who have to sell out the stadium by this evening to prevent a local blackout. The game is likely to be played in sub-zero temperatures in what could be the coldest playoff game that will be a modern rendition of the Ice Bowl. Suffice to say that women probably will not be wearing bikinis to the game, like some fans did earlier this year when the temperature was 18 degrees at Lambeau Field:

UPDATE (10: 40 AM EST):  Man Rescued from Frigid Lake Michigan

The Chicago Tribune reports that “a man was rescued from the frigid Lake Michigan water this afternoon on the south side, officials said. After they arrived they were able to get the man out of the water.” He “was taken in serious-to-critical condition to an area hospital, officials said.”

UPDATE (10: 30 AM EST): NYC Mayor: Stay off Roads

During a press conference, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said New Yorkers should stay off the roads if possible on Friday if they want safe and clear streets. De Blasio emphasized that it was dangerous on the roads due to icy conditions and poor visibility. He said to take mass transit if people need to travel. He said New York’s sanitation workers are working 12-hour shifts to clear the streets of snow. 

Minimal Power Outages

The AP reports that outages were minimal during the storm, though around 6,000 customers in the Washington-Baltimore area and 200 in Maine were left without power in the frigid weather. 

AMTRAK Plans to Run

According to the Associated Press:

Amtrak planned to run trains on all of its Northeast lines on Friday but operate on a modified schedule, spokeswoman Christina Leeds said. Commuter trains Metro-North Railroad, which runs trains between New York City and suburban Connecticut, Long Island and New York’s Hudson Valley, the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit were operating on weekend schedules. Chains were placed on New York City buses so they would not get stuck in drifts.

Thousands of Flights Canceled

According to FlightAware.com, “U.S. airlines canceled more than 2,300 flights Thursday because of the snowfall and low visibility. By Friday morning, about 1,600 flights were canceled nationwide.”

Deaths 

A woman who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease reportedly “froze to death after she wandered away from her rural western New York home.”

Right as the storm was approaching, “a worker at a suburban Philadelphia salt storage facility was killed when a 100-foot-tall pile of road salt fell and crushed him,” according to the Associated Press. 

Beet Juice Used to Treat Icy Roads

According to the AP, “The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is experimenting with beet juice as a way to treat icy roads in especially cold weather. Officials say chemicals in the juice might help road salt melt ice at lower temperatures than it usually can. The approach is also being used in Missouri.”

New York, New Jersey Declared States of Emergency

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie declared states of emergency and urged their residents to stay home during the storm. 

Original Story

(AP) At a glance: Details on the latest winter storm
By The Associated Press
A winter storm that swept across the Midwest this week blew through the Northeast and its biggest cities on Friday, producing more than a foot of snow in spots, giving rise to wind gusts that threatened trees and power lines, and leaving bone-chilling cold in its wake. A look at the storm:

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SNOWY, WINDY AND COLD

In the Northeast, the storm appeared to save the most snow for Massachusetts, where more than 13 inches fell in Boston and almost 2 feet fell to the north in Topsfield. The temperature was 2 degrees in Boston on Friday morning but felt like minus-20 when gusty winds were taken into account. New York City’s Central Park got 6 inches of snow, while across the city in the Ozone Park section of Queens, 10.5 inches fell. On suburban Long Island, as much as 11 inches fell and was accompanied by wind gusts as high as 40 mph. Parts of New Jersey saw at least 10 inches of snow.

In International Falls, Minn., renowned for its cold weather, residents considered a temperature hovering around zero a reprieve from Thursday’s low of minus-43; the temperature was expected to dive down again during the weekend.

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AT LEAST 9 DEAD

The storm was responsible for at least nine deaths across the country in the past few days, including a worker who was killed by a falling pile of road salt outside Philadelphia; a 79-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s disease who froze after wandering away from her home in western New York; and a 12-year-old car passenger who died when the vehicle driven by his 14-year-old friend crashed on a slick road in southwestern Michigan.

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TRAVEL AND ACCIDENTS

By Friday morning, about 1,600 flights had been canceled nationwide. Major highways around New York City, including the New York State Thruway and the Long Island Expressway, reopened after being closed overnight. Accidents were minimal across the Northeast as residents appeared to largely heed officials’ pleas to stay off the roads.

A tanker carrying crude oil crashed and went off a bridge Thursday on snowy Interstate 69 in Michigan, creating a toxic fire and forcing the evacuation of homes and businesses. In suburban Philadelphia, a 100-foot pile of road salt toppled over and trapped a worker who was operating a backhoe; the man died. In Indiana, a pickup truck collided with a charter bus loaded with casino patrons Wednesday, killing the pickup’s driver and injuring 15 bus passengers. In Vermont, workers rescued an infant from a car crash by pulling the baby up a steep embankment; the child, a man and a woman were taken to a hospital.

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POWER

Though the light, dry snow the storm produced didn’t create much of a threat to power lines, officials had feared high winds would. By Friday, outages were minimal, with around 6,000 customers in the dark in the Washington-Baltimore area and only 200 powerless in Maine, where an ice storm last week affected 160,000 customers in the state.

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CREATIVE SOLUTIONS

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is experimenting with beet juice as a way to treat icy roads in especially cold weather. Officials say chemicals in the juice might help road salt melt ice at lower temperatures than it usually can. The approach is also being used in Missouri.

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