Millions hunker down as Northeast storm totals downgraded

A person crosses a snow-covered Broadway in the Upper West Side neighborhood of New York, Monday, Jan. 26, 2015. People in the Northeast by the thousands left work early as the region started to shut down in the face of a snowstorm that could be one for the history books, with some 35 million people in its path in the Philadelphia-to-Boston corridor. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) A person crosses a snow-covered Broadway in the Upper West Side neighborhood of New York, Monday, Jan. 26, 2015. People in the Northeast by the thousands left work early as the region started to shut down in the face of a snowstorm that could be one for the history books, with some 35 million people in its path in the Philadelphia-to-Boston corridor. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

By Associated Press January 27, 2015 1 min read

NEW YORK (AP) – Tens of millions of people along the East Coast hunkered down for a storm that for most failed to live up to predictions that it would be one of the worst they’d ever seen.

Forecasters originally said the storm could bring 1 to 3 feet of snow and punishing hurricane-force winds. But early Tuesday, they downgraded most of those numbers, saying New England would fare the worst, but even then not as bad as expected.

Bruce Sullivan of the National Weather Service said Boston and Providence, Rhode Island, could get 2 feet of snow, New York 10 inches to 20 inches, and Philadelphia and central New Jersey about 6 inches.

On Monday, in preparation for the storm, officials ordered workers to go home early, banned travel and closed bridges and tunnels.