Winter Storm: Patrick Closes MA Roads

Enlarge image

Credit National Weather Service

Satellite image of winter storm, 2:22pm, 2/8/13

BOSTON (AP) — The governor of Massachusetts is banning all traffic from roads after 4 p.m. today, when the worst of a powerful snowstorm is expected to be bearing down on New England.

It's believed to be the first traffic ban in the state since the blizzard of 1978.

Boston could get as much as three feet of snow, which would break the city's snowfall record of 27.6 inches.

A forecaster says the storm is the type that "doesn't come along every day." Alan Dunham of the National Weather Service says it will be a "dangerous winter storm."

The heaviest snowfall is expected tonight and into tomorrow. Wind gusts could reach 75 miles an hour.

In New York City, where 10 to 14 inches of snow could fall, Mayor Michael Bloomberg says plows and 250,000 tons of salt are being put on standby.

The snow began falling this morning, and it's being blamed for a 19-car pileup in Cumberland, Maine.

Amtrak has suspended its Northeast Corridor service between New York and Boston. Airlines, meanwhile have canceled thousands of flights through tomorrow.

One New Jersey town that was hard-hit by Superstorm Sandy has issued a voluntary evacuation order for areas still recovering from the storm.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.