UPDATE:
People in the Boston area are under orders to stay off area roadways or face possible jail time and a fine as the storm intensifies. Wind gusts of up to 71 mph have been reported along the sea coast and thundersnow has been reported with the storm in Connecticut.
Despite being told there were no flight connections available and that she would be stuck through Monday in California, Huntington resident Erin Highlander was able to find a connecting flight to West Virginia through Atlanta. She tells 59 News she spent over four hours on the phone with airlines representatives who told her it was not possible to get back to West Virginia until Monday since her original flight was supposed to connect through New York. She went to the Orange County Airport in person where a gate agent was able to find her a connecting flight and arrived home Friday afternoon.
"A little luck and a little patience really does go a long way and tonight I'm home with the family," said Highlander.
Her travel problems are not unique as thousands of flights have been delayed from Boston and New York to airports across the nation and even international flights.
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Two storms are expected to combine and form a powerful and potent Nor 'Easter storm bringing as many as two feet of snow to parts of New England Friday and Saturday. Snow from the northern system is also forecast to leave up to a foot of snow across parts of the Great Lakes region into interior New York before meeting up with the southern system, adding the punch needed to create the Nor 'Easter.
Blizzard warnings are in effect for New York City and Long Island as well as Massachusetts including Boston, all of Connecticut, Rhode Island and the seashore of New Hampshire and parts of Maine. The Stormtracker meteorologists say winds along and near the Atlantic coastline could reach 65 miles per hour and remain high for several hours.
The same northern system should bring rain to central Appalachia on Friday before a quick change to some light snow, according to chief meteorologist Spencer Adkins.
"We see the northern cold front pressing across our area with temperatures in the 40s, falling into the 30s late day with about one to three inches of wet snow in the high terrain, generally above 2,500 feet, but the good thing is that this won't last very long. We should have a dry weekend here, while people up north will literally be digging out of some pretty big snow drifts," said Adkins.
Winds along the cold front could reach above 30 miles per hour in the high terrain of West Virginia late Friday into Saturday morning, according to the Stormtracker meteorologists. Temperatures below freezing could cause slick conditions in those high terrain areas and anywhere rain water may have a chance to freeze over.
Travel has already been greatly impacted, hours before the storm. Boston's Logan International Airport indicated it will close Friday afternoon through Saturday afternoon. As many as 1,600 flights have been canceled for the duration of the storm according to CBS News.
Huntington resident Erin Highlander said she is trying to reschedule a flight from California back to West Virginia. Her original flight was slated to make a connection in New York. Highlander said she was told all of those flights are canceled and other flights to other connecting hubs are filling up or are already full.
The Stormtracker meteorologists will continue to keep you updated on air and online as the storm unfolds.
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