New England To Bear Brunt Of Record Blizzard; Northeast Preparing

Power outages are predicted, and flights are being cancelled as the Northeast braces for a possible record-setting storm.

City officials up and down the northeastern United States were bracing for the storm, readying fleets of plows and salt trucks to keep streets clear, while airport officials advised travelers to try to reschedule flights ahead of the storm.

The National Weather Service said Boston could get 18 to 24 inches of snow on Friday and Saturday, its first heavy snowfall in two years. Light snow is expected to begin falling around 7 a.m. EST (1200 GMT) on Friday, with heavier snow and winds gusting as high as 60 to 75 miles per hour (95 to 120 km per hour) as the day progresses.

“It’s the afternoon rush-hour time frame into the evening and overnight when the height of the storm will be,” said Kim Buttrick, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Taunton, Massachusetts.

Cities from Hartford, Connecticut, to Portland, Maine, expected to see at least a foot of snow.

New York City Threatened