Region gets fallout from huge Blizzard of 2013

The region might have missed the mighty Blizzard of 2013, but it could not escape its fallout.

At Philadelphia International Airport, about 260 arriving or departing flights were canceled Friday, according to FlightStats.com, and arriving flights were delayed an hour, an airport spokeswoman said.

That was the result of the coastal storm that threatened to bury parts of moisture-starved New England under two-plus feet of snow in what meteorologists were calling a potentially "historic" storm.

After 9 p.m. Friday, a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation spokesman reported that it was "snowing pretty good" in Bucks County, where he was located, and that the agency was ready with 400 trucks for the southeastern corner of the state.

Philadelphia experienced little snowfall or winds into Friday night. A spokesman for SEPTA said there were isolated delays but the system was otherwise running normally.

It was a different story farther up the Atlantic Coast.

Amtrak announced it was suspending Northeast Corridor service out of Boston at 1:40 p.m., and all New York-to-Boston trains as of 1:03 p.m.

Amtrak also canceled Acela Express service between New York and Boston and limited trains traveling south from Boston and north from New York on Saturday.

The potent storm generated strong winds locally, gusting past 45 m.p.h. at the Shore, where a coastal flood warning was in effect for Saturday morning.

Gov. Christie ordered the state Emergency Operations Center to open for business.

And having endured what will probably be the worst storm in their lifetimes - Hurricane Sandy - some Shore officials weren't taking any chances with this one either.

Atlantic City Emergency Management Coordinator Tom Foley said public works crews this week removed debris in storm drains to mitigate against flooding in low-lying areas.

While local snow prospects were modest compared with the ones to the north, in the year of the "penny" snows almost any accumulation would qualify as an event in Philadelphia.

It wouldn't take much for this to become Philadelphia's biggest snowfall of the season. The biggest accumulation so far was 1.5 inches two weeks ago. The seasonal total before the storm was 5.4.

Overall, the region's road-department budgets have fared well the last two winters, and salt supplies are in excellent shape.

But the frequent "nuisance storms" have meant rounds of salting and brining. Philadelphia just experienced a stretch of seven consecutive days in which at least a trace of snow was reported. And the grand snow total for the seven days was 1.2 inches.

Rather than nickel-and-dime storms, said Gary Szatkowski, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, this season has brought "one-penny and twopenny" storms.

"We're prepared for whatever it is," PennDot spokesman Brad Rudolph said Friday.