'Snowmaggedon' takes aim at winter-weary US east

Google – AFP, 13 February 2014

A man jumps over a puddle on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, 

February 13, 2014 (AFP, Brendan Smialowski)

Washington — A deadly storm packing heavy snow and ice plowed into the eastern United States Thursday, triggering widespread road accidents and flight cancellations as hundreds of thousands of people were left without power.

The storm enveloped the capital Washington in a deep, white blanket, closing much of the federal government, and blotted visibility in New York City, where several more inches of snow were expected later Thursday.

Thousands of travelers were stranded as flights, including at major air hubs in Atlanta and New York, were canceled, and nearly 800,000 homes and businesses lost power, mainly in Georgia and North and South Carolina.

A man goes airborne while sledding

February 13, 2014 in Manassas,

Virginia (AFP, Karen Bleier)

The latest brutal freeze to hammer the eastern states of the country since the start of the year has been dubbed "Snowmaggedon," "mind-boggling" and "historic" by major television networks and forecasters.

US media reports said at least 11 people had died as a result of the storm.

One of the latest casualties came in New York early Thursday, when a snow plow struck and killed a 36-year-old pregnant woman in a supermarket parking lot, police said.

The woman was taken to hospital where her baby was delivered by cesarean section and said to be in a stable but critical condition.

As the storm moved north, the US National Weather Service warned that the "mammoth dome" of Arctic air would cut a wide swath of winter weather from Georgia to New England.

Moisture from the Atlantic "will continue to fuel widespread precipitation," it said.

Sleet and freezing rain were expected to set up along I-95, the major interstate highway that runs the length of the eastern seaboard.

"This storm is dangerous," said North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory. "Road conditions are treacherous in many areas."

Massive traffic jams from snow slicked roads made evening commutes in the South agonizing, hours-long affairs with the usually temperate cities of Raleigh and Charlotte transformed into ice- and snow-covered parking lots.

Map showing areas affected by ice storms in eastern United States (AFP)

Hundreds of traffic accidents were reported in the Carolinas and Georgia, where frozen roads hampered emergency response efforts.

President Barack Obama has declared states of emergency in Georgia and South Carolina in order to deploy federal resources to help deal with the frigid storm.

McCrory urged North Carolinians to stay indoors -- even if it meant sleeping at work -- rather than risk the treacherous roads.

"If you're in a safe warm place, stay in a safe warm place," McCrory told CNN.

"We've already had two fatalities and we don't want to see more."

Specialty website FlightAware said airlines canceled at least 3,700 flights on Wednesday while a further 6,500 had been scrapped on Thursday, including many to and from New York, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Washington.

Downtown Washington was a virtual ghost town. Most buses were not running and subway cars were nearly empty.

A Parks Department worker clears snow

 in Dupont Circle in Washington, February

13, 2014 (AFP, Brendan Smialowski)

As the snow started blowing in overnight, temperatures hovered around 26 degrees Fahrenheit (minus three Centigrade) but the bracing winds making it feel more like 15 degrees, forecasters said.

The White House cancelled its daily news briefing, and federal agencies told workers to stay home.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it was in contact with state emergency offices in densely populated Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia to assess their assistance needs as the storm builds.

In addition to the FEMA aid, various localities across the region had readied emergency shelters at churches and recreation centers where residents could stay warm should they lose power.

Military personnel had also been mobilized, with more than 2,300 Army and Air National Guard pressed into action, according to a Pentagon statement.

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"Connecting The Dots" - Feb 1, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - New

"Fast-Tracking" - Feb 8, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - New

“2011 and Beyond” - What you are seeing, and why - Jan 16, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Text version)

New Mini Ice Age

“… So now we've refreshed that which we have said before, a review. You are in the middle of a cycle that will bring cooling to the planet. It is not a heat cycle, but rather a cooling cycle. But it always starts with a short heat cycle. It has been here before. It will come again. It is a long cycle - one generation plus five years. That's how long it's going to last. It starts with the melting of the ice caps, which is far more than any of you have seen in your lifetime or those of your ancestors. It is a cycle whose repetition is thousands of years long, but one that has not yet been recorded to the books of Human record. But it's definitely been recorded in the cores of the ice and in the rings of the trees.

Thousands of years old, it is, and it happens in a cyclical way. It's about water. It starts with that which is the melting of the ice caps to a particular degree, which has a profound effect on the planet in all ways. You can't have that happen without seeing life change as well as Gaia change and you've seeing it already. What happens when you take that which is heavy on the poles [ice] and you melt it? It then becomes cold water added to that which is a very, very gentle and finite balance of temperature in the seas of the planet (1). The first thing that happens is a redistribution of the weight of water on the thin crust of the earth from ice at the poles to new water in the seas. The results become earthquakes and volcanoes, and you're seeing them, aren't you? You are having earthquakes in places that are not supposed to have earthquakes. Volcanoes are coming to life in a way that you've not seen before on a regular basis. There will be more. Expect them.

Is it too much to ask of a Human Being that if you live by a volcano that you know might erupt, maybe you ought to move? Yet there will be those who say, "It hasn't erupted in my lifetime or my parents' lifetime or my grandparents' lifetime; therefore, it won't." You may have a surprise, for all things are changing. That is what is happening to Gaia. ….“

THE RELATIONSHIP TO GAIA - April 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

"The weather you have today, and all the alarming attributes of it, is a scenario of what was scheduled to happen on Earth anyway. I review again that the weather changes you are seeing prophesied by myself, 21 years ago, are not a surprise. The changes are not caused by the pollutants you put in the air. You call it global warming and that's a nice phrase, and perhaps that will get you to put less pollutants in the air – a very good thing. But what you are seeing in the weather shift today was not caused by Humans putting things into the air. It would have happened anyway in about 300 years."

"We've called this process the water cycle, since it's all about water, not about air. The water is the predominant attribute of Gaia and of the weather cycle you're seeing. More predominant is the temperature of it. The cycle is ice to water and water to ice, and has been repeated on this planet over and over and over. It is not new. It is not exceptional. It is not frightening. But it's a cycle that modern humanity has not seen before, and it's a long cycle that is beyond the life span of a Human Being. Therefore, it tends to be overlooked or not seen at all !"

"In the days of the Lemurians, the water level of the Pacific Ocean was almost 400 feet lower, and that's only 50,000 years ago. [Kryon invites science to check this out – the water level at that time.] That was a water cycle working, and the reason it was lower was due to so much of the water being stored as ice. Today you're going through another water cycle that will eventually lead to cooling. The last one was in the 1400s."

"Science sees that at about 1650. As mentioned, they are so slow there is no remembrance that a Human has of them except in past writings and in the rings of the trees. The time span of the changes is so great that environmental record keeping does not exist in the form that it does today. But you can still look at the rings of the trees and at the striations of the rocks and can generally figure out that a few hundred years ago, you had a mini-ice age. Now you're going to have another one."