MANTOLOKING, N.J. (AP) – A late-winter storm inflicted new damage Thursday to parts of the Jersey shore still struggling to recover from Superstorm Sandy, as New Englanders braced for potential evacuations and coastal flooding.
The storm buried parts of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions with snow but barely laid a glove on Washington, D.C.
As the storm moved up the coast to New England, strong winds, heavy snow and power outages were expected.
In Mantoloking, N.J., the Jersey shore town hardest-hit by Sandy, pounding surf broke through a temporary dune during the early-morning high tide. The dune breach forced the closing of a major coastal highway for several hours, but the highway re-opened late Thursday morning.
Detective Stacy Ferris said the breach spanned three oceanfront properties, sending 3 to 6 inches of water flowing through onto the highway. As a result, officials closed portion of Route 35.
The state Department of Transportation, along with Mantoloking’s own public works crews and contractors, were busy scooping and pushing sand back into the breach to prepare for high tide, expected at about 3 p.m. Thursday.
“We’re going to plug that hole before the next high tide,” Ferris said.
Every one of the 521 homes in Mantoloking was damaged to some degree by Sandy. Many were completely destroyed and hundreds of others suffered major damage.
New Englanders were bracing for the brunt of the storm Thursday evening and Friday morning.
The National Weather Service was predicting up to 7 inches of heavy, wet snow in southeastern Connecticut and wind gusts that could hit 50 mph. A coastal flood warning was in effect starting Thursday morning for east-facing shores in Massachusetts, with up to a 3-foot surge at high tide in some areas. Central Massachusetts was bracing for 4 to 8 inches of snow, while early predictions were that Boston would get less.
Dozens of car crashes were reported across Connecticut Thursday morning. A FedEx tractor trailer overturned on Interstate 84 in Tolland, causing a chain-reaction crash involving about nine other vehicles, including a state police cruiser and two other tractor-trailers.
The eastbound side of the highway was closed for hours Thursday morning, but no serious injuries were reported.
In the seacoast town of Scituate, Mass., about 30 miles south of Boston, emergency officials were setting up a shelter at the high school and preparing for three high tides during the duration of the storm, including one at about 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
“They are recommending that folks who live right on the coast to evacuate at least three hours before high tide,” said Mark Patterson, the town’s harbormaster.
“A lot of the concern has to do at this point with the wind direction and duration of the storm,” Patterson said.
“If the wind stays in the northeast for all three (high tides), that will drive the storm surge onto shore and that’s when we see coastal flooding and beach erosion.”
Some other in Massachusetts were carefree about the storm.
Mail carrier Stephen Manning didn’t even wear a coat as he delivered mail along Dorchester Avenue in Boston. Instead, he wore a hooded sweatshirt.
“This is warm,” Manning said. “You wear a jacket when it’s cold.”
The storm pummeled the nation’s midsection Tuesday, killing at least five people in weather-related traffic accidents. More than 1,100 flights were cancelled Tuesday at Chicago’s two airports, and hundreds more were cancelled Wednesday in Washington, Philadelphia and New York.
In Washington, where as much as 10 inches had been forecast, the storm did little but drop harmless snowflakes that rapidly melted amid warmer-than-expected temperatures.
There were bigger problems elsewhere in the region, though.
In southwest Virginia, a 22-year-old man was killed early Thursday after his vehicle ran off an icy Route 632, went over an embankment and landed upside down in a creek.
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell declared a state of emergency and about 50 National Guard soldiers were sent out to help clear roads. Up to 20 inches of snow piled up in central and western parts of the state. More than 200,000 customers in Virginia lost power.
In Maryland, the U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday resumed searching for a distressed fishing boat that was lost in rough seas with two men on board. The Coast Guard said the 67-foot boat became disabled 15 miles east of Assateague Island Wednesday. The Coast Guard found a third man on a life raft and was able to rescue him.
The storm dumped 2 feet of snow in parts of neighboring West Virginia, closing schools in more than half the state and leaving more than 20,000 customers without power.
In Pennsylvania and Ohio, many areas had 4 to 6 inches of snow.
___ Associated Press writers Alex Dominguez in Baltimore; Jessica Gresko, Ben Nuckols and Brett Zongker in Washington; David Dishneau in Hagerstown, Md..; Steve Szkotak in Richmond, Va.; Don Babwin and Jason Keyser in Chicago; Kevin Wang in Madison, Wis.; and Sylvia Wingfield and Denise Lavoie in Boston contributed to this report.
Caption 1: Ocean waves crash over a seawall and into houses along the coast in Scituate, Mass., Thursday, March 7, 2013. A nor’easter is bringing wind-whipped, wet snow to Massachusetts, and coastal flooding is expected in communities still recovering from February’s blizzard. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Caption 2: Carol Marelli walks down her flooded street Thursday, March 7, 2013, in Sea Bright, N.J., after an overnight storm. Flooding remained a problem in other shore towns. Water on roadways was also forcing closures in towns including Monmouth Beach, Absecon, Aberdeen, Egg Harbor Township and Wildwood. A coastal flood warning remains in effect until 9 a.m. Friday, but forecasters were not expecting Thursday’s wind to be as strong as Wednesday, when gusts exceeding 60 mph were recorded in many places along the ocean. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
Caption 3: Carol Marelli walks down her flooded street Thursday, March 7, 2013, in Sea Bright, N.J., after an overnight storm. Flooding remained a problem in other shore towns. Water on roadways was also forcing closures in towns including Monmouth Beach, Absecon, Aberdeen, Egg Harbor Township and Wildwood. A coastal flood warning remains in effect until 9 a.m. Friday, but forecasters were not expecting Thursday’s wind to be as strong as Wednesday, when gusts exceeding 60 mph were recorded in many places along the ocean. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
Caption 4: Crews clear a flooded road Thursday, March 7, 2013, in Sea Bright, N.J., after an overnight storm caused the ocean to breach a temporary dune. The lingering late-winter storm brought new damage Thursday to parts of the Jersey shore still struggling to recover from Superstorm Sandy. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
Caption 5: Carol Marelli walks down her flooded street Thursday, March 7, 2013, in Sea Bright, N.J., after an overnight storm. Flooding remained a problem in this and other shore towns. Water on roadways was also forcing closures in towns including Monmouth Beach, Absecon, Aberdeen, Egg Harbor Township and Wildwood. A coastal flood warning remains in effect until 9 a.m. Friday, but forecasters were not expecting Thursday’s wind to be as strong as Wednesday, when gusts exceeding 60 mph were recorded in many places along the ocean. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
Caption 6: Mark Marshall, DPW equipment operator, fills a truck with salt before the storm in Teaneck, N.J., Wednesday, March 6, 2013. The Teaneck Department of Public Works has been preparing for the snow storm since Monday, checking and mounting equipment onto trucks and filling trucks with salt. (AP Photo/The Record of Bergen County, Tariq Zehawi)
Caption 7: An SUV is stuck in the sand on NC 12 in the Mirlo Beach area of Rodanthe, N.C. on Thursday, March 7, 2013, the day after a winter storm brought sound-side flooding and some ocean overwash to Hatteras Island. (AP Photo/The Virginian-Pilot, Steve Earley) MAGS OUT
Caption 8: Amy Price, of Jennerstown, right, and her friend, Theresa Pelesky, of Boswell cross country ski in Laurel Mountain State Park near Jennerstown, Pa.. They are pre-school teachers whose school was closed for the day due to the weather. Jenner Township received six to eight inches of snow from the storm. (AP Photo/The Tribune-Democrat, John Rucosky) THE MORNING CALL OUT; DAILY AMERICAN OUT; WJAC-TV OUT
Caption 9: Wind, rain and the tide batter the Jersey Shore as a winter storm moves at the Point Pleasant inlet in Manasquan, N.J. (AP Photo/The Record of Bergen County, Chris Pedota)
Caption 10: Nick Solanki, owner of Herby’s Food and Deli clears off snow from an awning at his business Wednesday afternoon March 6, 2013 along Third Street in Harrisonburg, Va.. Some areas of the Central Shenandaoh Valley received over a foot of snow from Winter Storm Saturn. (AP Photo/The Daily News-Record, Michael Reilly)
Caption 11: Nelson Duarte, left, and Wayne Edgar clear snow off sidewalks at Avington Park off Yellow Springs Rd. in Frederick, Md. early Wednesday morning Feb. 6, 2013. (AP Photo/The Frederick News-Post,Sam Yu)
Caption 12: People work on clearing the sidewalks at the historic Hardesty-Higgins House in downtown Harrisonburg, Va., Wednesday afternoon March 6, 2013. (AP Photo/The Daily News-Record, Nikki Fox)
Caption 13: Falling snow and fog partially obscures the view of this farm off Harp Hill Rd. near Wolfsville, Md., during the winter storm Wednesday afternoon March 3, 2013. Residents of far western Maryland are shaking off more than a foot of snow Wednesday. (AP Photo/The Frederick News-Post,Sam Yu)
