By
The Associated Press
RYE, N.H. - After failing to live up to its billing in the mid-Atlantic states, a nor'easter piled snow 21/2 feet deep in New England yesterday and hammered the coast with waves that threw rocks as big as bowling balls across shoreline roads.
Hundreds of flights were canceled and schools were closed across the Northeast for a second day, and workers in Rhode Island's state lottery headquarters fled just before their roof collapsed under the weight of snow and ice.
Schools, banks, businesses and government offices were closed in New Hampshire and much of Maine, and the only vehicles on many highways were snowplows.
"Wolfeboro is a ghost town," snowplow driver Gary George said as he cleared roads in the small town in eastern New Hampshire.
Vermont's Jay Peak ski resort got 29 inches of new snow, 28 fell at Ballston Spa, N.Y., north of Albany, and 25 piled up at Jaffrey, N.H.
Elsewhere, however, the storm that had threatened to be the worst in years delivered only a few inches of snow in New York City, and Philadelphia got only flurries, sleet and rain. Sections of New Jersey and Pennsylvania that expected more than a foot got only inches.
Meteorologists defended their frequently shifting forecasts.
"It's a very complex storm because what's happening is on the surface and in the upper layers of the atmosphere," said National Weather Service meteorologist George Klein in New York. "You see, we're dealing with computer models that tell us what a storm should do, not what a storm could do."
At least seven people had been killed in weather-related traffic accidents, four in New York state and one each in New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Vermont authorities searched the frozen surface of Lake Champlain for a 15-year-old boy missing since Monday on his snowmobile.
New Hampshire's Seabrook nuclear plant was taken off-line after the storm knocked out some high-voltage lines, and about 80,000 homes and businesses were without power yesterday in Massachusetts.
Wind gusted to 63 mph on Massachusetts' Cape Cod and waves crashed over seawalls along New Hampshire's coast, bouncing rocks across flooded roads. Parts of Rye were under 2 feet of water after the waves tore apart one section of seawall.
Flooding was also reported along the Massachusetts and Maine shorelines.
"We're not taking any chances," said Fred Loeb, who left his house in Scituate, Mass., with his wife, two children and their dog after water rose to the level of their main floor.
"It's probably the worst coastal storm since 1992," Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci said.
Ninety percent of flights scheduled to leave Boston's Logan Airport yesterday morning were canceled, along with 700 flights at the New York metropolitan area's Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports.
Schools were closed again yesterday from Pennsylvania across parts of New England.
Employees of the Rhode Island Lottery Commission heard crackling and fled from their offices in Cranston just before the roof collapsed under the weight of ice and 5 inches. No one was hurt.
"Everyone started to scream," said lottery director Gerald Aubin.
Nearly 3 feet of snow fell at New York state's Lake Placid, home of the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics, and organizers had to call off yesterday's World Cup Biathlon and training for this weekend's World Cup bobsled event.
"Bring a snorkel," said Sandy Caligiore, spokesman for the Olympic Regional Development Authority.
