Cambridge and Somerville remain in shutdown mode as the region continues to be buffeted by a major nor’easter. The public schools, city offices, libraries and programs in both cities will remain closed through Tuesday. While the power grid has so far been largely unscathed around the area, transit is a major issue.
The MBTA announced that on Tuesday subway and bus lines would operate on reduced schedules “similar” to Sunday schedules, and commuter rail would operate on a storm schedule. The MBTA compared this week’s storm to the blizzard of 1978, noting that Boston had seen 16 inches of snow and there were as much as 30 inches on the ground in parts of its service areas (both fell short of the snowfall totals in 1978, although Providence broke that record, with more than 33 inches of snow). The MBTA said “Time is needed for clearing and cleanup, and the MBTA will focus tomorrow on snow removal efforts while providing reduced transit service for those who need it.”
The storm might not have surpassed the blizzard of ‘78, but it did something that storm did not: stop the Boston Globe’s home delivery. Where the Globe was able to deliver its print edition to some locations during the ‘78 blizzard, it announced tonight it will not print and deliver a Tuesday paper.
Flight delays also affected some residents trying to return from winter break week. Eugenia Schraa Huh and her family were scheduled to be on a flight from Atlanta to Boston on Sunday, but it became one of 396 canceled flights into or out of Logan Airport that day. With another 973 flights cancelled today, according to data from FlightAware, and 450 so far tomorrow, it’s been a challenge to get back.
After their Sunday morning flight was cancelled, Schraa Huh and her family were put on standby but continued to get pushed to later flights.
Ming-Tai Huh, Shraa Huh’s husband, said when he finally got in touch with a representative of the airline over an online chat room, he was told the next available flight would be Thursday morning, nearly four days after the original flight.
The family plans to fly Wednesday morning to New York, then take the train to Boston, in an effort to make sure their children, both students at the Baldwin School, make it to classes on Thursday. (The public schools are set to resume in-person instruction on Wednesday).
The family had traveled for a family baptism, and it’s been some consolation to get some extra time with her new nephew. “To get the little baby to ourselves, that’s a very nice silver lining,” she said.
While the family’s cars were not parked on a major thoroughfare, families stuck trying to get back from winter break at the schools could be a factor in the large number of vehicles that were not moved from major thoroughfares in Cambridge before the storm, resulting in more than 300 tickets being given out so far. Cambridge’s parking ban will lift on Tuesday at 5 p.m.
Trash and recycling pickup will be delayed a full day in both cities this week. Cambridge’s website says if trash and recycling do not get picked up as scheduled, residents should leave bins outside for pickup the following day.
Tufts University this afternoon canceled classes on Tuesday, giving students a second day off. Classes at Lesley University will be fully remote, according to the school’s Facebook page. Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have not as of publication time issued official cancellations for Tuesday.
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