Jumbo jet skids off runway as potentially historic storm Kenan slams into Northeast

Video has emerged of the terrifying moment a large cargo jet skid off the runway and crashed into cargo bins at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport as a storm began pummeling the Northeast and New England, grounding thousands of flights and creating extreme hazards for road travel. 

The shocking video, captured by CCTV at the O’Hare Airport on Saturday, shows the China Airlines Cargo 747 sliding on the snow covered ground as it loses control and swerves into cargo on the runway. 

One of the cargo bins can be seen getting sucked into the left engine. It’s immediately shredded into pieces and damages the engine, which erupts into smoke. 

The plane is shaken by the crash and finally comes to a halt. 

The Chicago Fire Department responded to the scene, and no injuries were reported. 

On Saturday morning, snow was falling furiously at a rate of one to two inches per hour in New York City, which was saw eight inches, with up to 18 inches expected on the eastern end of Long Island.

‘This is a very serious storm,’ New York Governor Kathy Hochul said at a press conference. ‘This could be life-threatening.’ 

One weather-related death has already been reported in Long Island around 8.30am, where an elderly man was shoveling snow near a pool when he fell in and reportedly drowned, according to Southold Town Police. 

Officer managed to pull the man out of the pool and perform CPR on him with the assistance of Cutchogue Fire Department Rescue personnel.

He was transported to Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital, where he was later announced deceased.  

As of 4pm, the highest snowfall total was in Norton, Massachusetts, with a total of 22.5 inches of snow.

New England was expected to be hardest hit, and forecasters say that Boston’s totals could rival the record of 27.6 inches set in 2003, with predictions of up to 30 inches in parts of Massachusetts as coastal flooding threatened Boston harbor.  

More than 3,500 flights were cancelled across the country Saturday, including nearly every flight into or out of Boston, and more than 1,000 flights in the New York City area. 

Freeze alerts were raised as far south as Florida, where the National Weather Service warned of ‘scattered to isolated falling iguanas from trees’ as plunging temperatures temporarily paralyzed the large lizards, which can weigh up to 20 pounds.  

‘Heavy snow and powerful winds will spread from the Mid-Atlantic coast to the Northeast coast throughout the day,’ the NWS said in a flash bulletin.

‘The combination of heavy snow rates and strong winds will produce dangerous blizzard conditions across portions of the Mid-Atlantic and New England coasts, from Virginia’s Eastern Shore to eastern Maine,’ the alert added. 

There is ‘high confidence’ this will be a ‘historic major winter storm for eastern New England,’ the NWS said on Friday. 

Blizzard warnings are now in place for more than 10 million people, mostly in coastal areas from Maryland to Maine, while some 55 million more are under winter storm warnings. 

Parts of 10 states and some major population centers – Philadelphia, New York and Boston – were in the path of the storm, which was expected to continue raging throughout the day. 

Boston, in the nor’easter’s crosshairs, could get as much as two feet of snow. 

Isolated pockets nearby could get as much as three feet, forecasters said. Winds gusted as high as 70 mph on Nantucket Island off Massachusetts and over 60 mph elsewhere in eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. 

As the sun rose on Saturday, more than 78,000 customers were without power in Massachusetts, according to PowerOutage.US. Cape Cod was the hardest hit area, with nearly a third of customers suffering outages.

‘The power is out in Hyannis. We have howling winds, The trees are swaying and caked in snow, and the snow is falling heavy,’ tweeted Boston Globe journalist Carlos R. Munoz. 

Amtrak cancelled all Acela train service between DC and New York/Boston, as well as all Northeast Regional and Vermonter service along the corridor.

Officials from Virginia to Maine warned people to stay off the roads amid potential whiteout conditions.

‘Travel is not recommended through [Saturday] evening,’ the NWS New York City office said. ‘If you must travel, use extreme caution and have a winter survival kit with you.’ 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams warned New Yorkers not to travel and canceled outdoor dining and vaccine appointments on Saturday ahead of the powerful Nor’easter. 

Adams warned that ‘Mother Nature has a tendency to do what she wants’ and praised the city’s Department of Sanitation workers for their efforts to keep the roads passable, as well as residents for shoveling sidewalks.

He urged New Yorkers to stay home if possible and to take public transit if travel is absolutely necessary.

The governors of New York and New Jersey declared a state of emergency, while Boston Mayor Michelle Wu declared a snow emergency.

‘It is going to get quite ugly out there,’ she said in an early-morning television interview from City Hall. ‘This is going to be a historic storm.’

Officials from the New York State Thruway Authority’s city division said Saturday morning that crews had worked through the night treating the roadways, but cautioned residents to avoid all travel if possible. 

In West Hartford, Connecticut, a tractor-trailer jacknifed on snow-slicked Interstate 84, closing several westbound lanes.

Rhode Island, all of which was under a blizzard warning, banned all nonemergency road travel starting at 8am.

‘This is serious. We’re ready for this storm, and we also need Rhode Islanders to be ready,’ Governor Dan McKee said. ‘The best way to handle this storm is to stay home tomorrow.’

Massachusetts residents had rushed Friday to buy groceries, as well as snow- and ice-melting pellets to help keep their sidewalks and driveways clear.

By early Saturday morning, Boston Public Works said 500 snow plows were already hard at work on the city streets.

The storm will produce extremely cold temperatures with dangerous wind chills Saturday night into Sunday morning, the NWS said.

‘Get home safely tonight, remain home over the weekend, avoid any unnecessary travel,’ New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement, singling out Long Island, New York City and the lower Hudson Valley for particularly deep snow.

She also urged people who had to travel to fill their car gas tanks and keep supplies such as ice scrapers, blankets and water in their vehicles.

Across the region, residents hunkered down and avoided travel at the behest of government leaders, who warned of whiteout conditions. Business closed or opened late.

In suburban Boston, a bundled-up Nicky Brown, 34, stood at the doors of Gordon’s liquor store in Waltham, waiting for it to open. 

It was supposed to open at 8am, and it was already well past that.

‘My boyfriend is out driving a plow, and I had a bunch of cleaning to do at home, and I want a drink while I´m doing it,’ she said, as she called the store to find out if it planned to open at all. 

‘It´s a good day to stay inside and clean.’

In the seaside town of Newburyport, north of Boston near the New Hampshire border, officials strongly encouraged residents living along the shore to move to higher ground.

Video posted on social media showed wind and waves battering North Weymouth, south of Boston, flooding streets with a slurry of frigid water. Other video showed a street underwater on Nantucket.

Tens of thousands of homes and businesses lost power in Massachusetts, with failures mounting. No other states reported widespread outages.

The storm had two saving graces: Dry snow less capable of snapping trees and tearing down power lines, and its timing on a weekend, when schools were closed and few people were commuting. 

The NWS Eastern Region reported Friday that the storm was expected to intensify rapidly over the next 24 hours, a meteorological event sometimes referred to as a ‘bomb cyclone.’

The blizzard comes on the heels of a similar winter storm that blanketed a swath of Eastern North America — from Georgia to Canada — just two weeks ago, cutting power to thousands of homes and also disrupting thousands of flights.

Meanwhile, in neighboring New Jersey, NJ Transit suspended all bus service at the start of the service day on Saturday, with plans to resume service once it is safe to do so, with transit officials saying they’re anticipating bringing back buses ‘later in the day’ on Saturday.  

Boston’s Logan Airport has canceled most of its flights as the city braces for the worst snowstorm in its history to hit, as all the East Coast prepares for blizzard-like conditions, including up to two feet of snow and flooding in some areas. 

Delaware allowed only essential personnel to drive in two of its three counties starting Friday night. 

Massachusetts, where forecasters said some isolated pockets could get as much as 30 inches of snow, banned heavy trucks from interstate highways for most of Saturday.

Shoppers crammed stores Friday to stock up on food and buy generators and snowblowers ahead of the nor’easter, a type of storm so named because its winds typically blow from the northeast as it churns up the East Coast.

Many hardy New Englanders took the forecast cheerfully and even looked forward to the storm, given its weekend timing.

Dave McGillivray, race director for the Boston Marathon, jokingly invited the public to his suburban Boston home on Saturday for a free snow shoveling clinic. 

‘I will provide the driveway and multiple walkways to ensure your training is conducted in the most life-like situation,’ he said.

Virginia, where a blizzard this month stranded hundreds of motorists for hours on Interstate 95, did not hesitate to get resources at the ready. In Maryland, the governor mobilized the National Guard.

Washington and Baltimore were forecast to be spared the worst of the snowfall, with only 1 to 3 inches and 5 inches, respectively.

Snow could fall as fast as 5 inches per hour in spots, including Connecticut, where officials worried about having enough snowplow drivers amid shortages caused by the coronavirus pandemic and other issues.

The worst of the storm was expected to blow by Sunday morning into Canada, where several provinces were under warnings.

One saving grace, at least in parts of Massachusetts: The snow should fall light and flaky because it is coming with cold weather that dries it out, said Judah Cohen, a winter storm expert for the commercial firm Atmospheric Environmental Research.

That means lousy snowballs – and snow that’s less capable of snapping tree branches and tearing down power lines.

 

Marc Rudkowski, 28, bought French bread and wine Friday at the Star Market in Cambridge, Massachusetts, along with balloons and toys for his dog, who turned 1 on Friday.

‘He´s going to love it,’ Rudkowski said. ‘He´s a snow dog.’

But there were some concerns about hoarding amid ongoing supply chain issues caused by the pandemic. New England supermarket giant Stop & Shop pleaded with customers to practice restraint.

‘We ask shoppers to buy what they need and save some for their neighbors,’ the chain said in a statement.

Parts of 10 states were under blizzard warnings: Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. Areas closest to the coast were expected to bear the brunt of the storm, which could bring wind gusts as high as 70 mph (113 kph) in New England.

Coastal New Jersey was forecast to get as much as 18 inches (46 centimeters) of snow and eastern Long Island up to 17 inches. 

Philadelphia, New York City, and parts of the Delmarva Peninsula in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia could get 10 inches or more.

The Boston airport has cancelled 19 out and 117 flights in for Friday and 301 flights out and 285 into the airport on Saturday, according to the flight tracking website.  

American Airlines, United and Southwest have cancelled all of their Boston flights for Saturday with JetBlue cancelling 96 percent, Spirit cancelling 87% and Delta cancelling 65%, according to FlightAware. 

New York airports, including John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia, have cancelled more than 400 flights in and out for Friday and over 1,200 flights arriving and departing on Saturday.  

All airports should be in the clear by early Sunday morning. 

‘This storm is likely to strengthen at a rate, and to an intensity, equivalent to only the most powerful hurricanes, so the high-end potential of this storm cannot be overstated,’ CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller said. 

‘But with nor’easters, like in real estate, it will all come down to location, location, location.’ 

The forecasts show that Boston may record its worst snowstorm in history. The major city is expected to receive about 18-24 inches of snow and wind gusts of 70 miles per hour were forecast starting on Saturday. 

Southeastern Massachusetts, including Cape Cod and the island of Martha’s Vineyard, were expected to get the highest snow totals.

If Boston gets hit with more than the 23.6 inches of snow in 24 hours, it will replace the 2003 Blizzard as the snowiest day in the city’s history. 

The 2003 President’s Day Storm blizzard was a historic and record-breaking snowstorm all along the East coast with some cities receiving 30 inches of snow. 

The snowfall will move into the top 10 snowiest days on record, if Boston sees more than 14.8 inches of snow in 24 hours. 

If the city sees more than 24.6 inches of snow this weekend’s storm will become the snowiest since the record was set from the blizzard that hit from January 26 to January 28, 2015. 

But Boston would need to report more than 27.6 inches within two days break that record. 

Along with snow and heavy winds, forecasts are all expecting to see flooding in areas along the ocean.  

‘Coastal flooding is a concern thanks to astronomically high tides on Saturday,’ the weather service office in Boston said. 

‘The combination of strong northeast winds and high seas will bring storm surges that, if coinciding with high tide, would lead to minor or moderate coastal flooding.’ 

The National Weather Service (NWS) on Friday issued a blizzard warning for the Boston metropolitan area, which has a population of nearly 4.9 million residents. 

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has issued a ‘snow emergency’ which will being Friday at 9pm. ‘Residents are encouraged to stay home,’ she tweeted.   

The first winter storm watches were issued for parts of eastern Massachusetts on Wednesday at 3pm — some 57 hours before they were set to go into effect at 12am on Saturday.  

The city’s Transportation and Sanitation department has more than 38,000 tons of road salt and the ability to put more than 800 pieces of snow equipment on the road, said Chief of Streets Jascha Franklin-Hodge confirmed.  

Local meteorologists have said that the forecasts show that a blizzard is very likely to hit Boston on Saturday. 

To become a blizzard a storm must have sustained wind or frequent gusts of 35mph or greater and considerable falling and/or blowing snow reducing visibility to under a quarter mile for at least three consecutive hours. 

This weekend’s storm would mark the first time Boston has been under a blizzard warning since March of 2018. 

‘Boston is within the bull’s-eye of some of the worst conditions expected, and into Maine,’ meteorologist Mary Gilbert told the New York Post. ‘They’re going to have very strong winds as well, so travel is going to be very difficult.’ 

But Boston isn’t the only city awaiting a potential blizzard. Nearly 10 million people across 10 states in coastal counties from New England to Virginia have been issued blizzard warnings. 

Accuweather forecasters recommend avoiding travel across New England during the storm on Saturday and Sunday night as the storm is likely to maintain its intensity for about eight to 12 hours.  

Some parts of coastal Atlantic were also facing the possibility of flooding in low-lying areas and vulnerable roadways, the NWS said.

The storm system will push temperatures down. Highs will range from 15 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit below average across the eastern third of the US on Saturday. 

New York City could record 1-inch of snow an hour and pack winds of up to 50mph throughout the city on Saturday. 

The Big Apple’s storm situation remains uncertain. The city is forecasted to get between 8 and 12 inches of snow but has been given a 10 percent chance of more than 17 inches and a 10 percent of no snow. 

The Snow Alert began at 4pm on Friday but outdoor dining will remain open until Saturday. Adams issued a Code Blue which aims to shelter the homeless when the temperature drops to 32 degrees or below, including wind-chill.  

‘We are going to be prepared for it,’ Adams told reporters Friday afternoon. ‘We can expect up to one foot of snow but you know, Mother Nature has a tendency to do what she wants, and we’re just going to be prepared.’ 

The last notable Nor’easter to hit the Northeast came in October, and hammered the area with powerful winds and heavy rains that left more than 600,000 homes and businesses without power at one point, USA Today reported. 

Source: dailymail