NEW YORK (AP) – Bitter temperatures and biting winds had much of the northeastern United States bundling up this weekend and the brutal weather was blamed for a deadly interstate pileup.
The coldest temperatures of the season blew into the region Saturday with gusts that created dangerous wind chills, well below zero.
Through noon Sunday, the National Weather Service said, high winds could make it feel as cold as minus-25 to minus-30 in New York City and parts of Connecticut and New Jersey and as cold as minus-35 degrees around Boston.
“These temperatures can be life threatening – especially for seniors, infants and people with medical conditions,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said. Stay indoors and take care of each other, he counseled.
Police said weather was a factor in the pileup Saturday in Pennsylvania that saw dozens of vehicles – tractor-trailers, box trucks, cars and SUVs – tangled together across three lanes and the snow-covered median of Interstate 78. A snow squall appears to have moved through at the time of the crash. Three people were killed and dozens sent to hospitals.