Temperatures Plummet and Flood Waters Rise in Midwest, East

Winter whipsawed through much of the nation Friday, sending Midwestern temperatures crashing 58 degrees in one Illinois town and melting blizzard snow into flash floods in the East.

Several towns in West Virginia were warned to evacuate after the Greenbrier and Potomac rivers jumped their banks. In Keyser, helicopters lifted some people to safety, and some residents had to be removed by boat in Parsons when the Cheat River flooded.

About 330 West Virginia roads were closed because of high water, and officials estimated that at least 430 homes were damaged. That number was expected to rise as some rivers crest today.

There was also flooding in Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. In Ligonier, Pa., rising creek water trapped at least 16 people in the township building.

Several hundred roads were reported underwater in Pennsylvania, where 40 inches of snow melted rapidly in rain and warmer temperatures.

The National Guard was activated in Pennsylvania and Virginia to help control flooding.

Winds of 60 mph pushed a barge loaded with 4 million gallons of diesel oil aground on a shoal off a Rhode Island beach and the barge was breaking up in heavy surf and leaking its cargo Friday night.

The tugboat Scandia, which had been towing the barge, exploded and burned for unknown reasons, Coast Guard officials said, and the six-man crew had to abandon ship. They were rescued by the Coast Guard.

It’s possible only a small amount of fuel was leaking into the storm-roiled seas, but in a worst case scenario, “the barge breaks apart and we lose the whole 4 million gallons,” Gov. Lincoln Almond said.

In the Midwest, Plains and South, a blast of Arctic air sent temperatures tumbling, giving people weather whiplash.

“Thursday we were working in shirt sleeves. Today we’re trying to figure out how to get ice out of the truck hoses,” said Phillip Caputi at Athens Oil Co. in Athens, Ga. The temperature went from 65 degrees to 31 overnight.

Cities that saw record highs on Thursday woke up to a deep freeze. Moline, Ill., fell to minus 2, a 58-degree drop. Indianapolis was 61 on Thursday, and 4 on Friday. Atlanta fell from 63 degrees to 21.

The storm blew into the East with driving rain and lower temperatures. Wind gusting to 61 mph closed New York City’s Verrazano Narrows and Throgs Neck bridges to motorcycles and trucks.

A 9-by-12-foot section of the dome above the U.N. General Assembly was ripped up by the gusting winds, forcing workers to put half a dozen metal garbage cans around the podium to catch leaking water.

Eight subway lines experienced problems, mostly because of flooding in the tunnels. Work crews are roaming city streets to fix about 20,000 potholes and sinkholes left behind by the blizzard.

For many in North Dakota, Minnesota and Nebraska, it was still too cold to begin digging out from the blizzard that blasted the region with more than a foot of snow Wednesday and Thursday. Schools, offices and businesses were closed a second day.

Bismarck, N.D., hit a record 39 below. Fosston, Minn., had the nation’s low with 44 degrees below zero. At least six deaths were blamed on the storm in Minnesota, where windchills were recorded as low as minus 80. One person was killed by flooding in West Virginia.

Despite power outages and the bitter cold, few people took refuge in Red Cross emergency shelters in Minnesota’s Twin Cities.

“Minnesotans seem to be hardy souls who will put up with just about anything for an evening,” said Paula Beck of the Red Cross.