Wretched winter grips Northeast; huge Pennsylvania Turnpike pileup

Michael Muskal and Richard Simon in the Los Angeles Tmes: Mother Nature had scant love for the eastern portion of the United States on Valentine’s Day, continuing a streak of miserable and deadly weather that has turned much of the nation into a snowy, icy mess and caused a major pileup on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

On Friday, one side of the Pennsylvania Turnpike outside Philadelphia, an area that got more than a foot of snow, was blocked by collisions that caused minor injuries. At least 16 motorists were injured, including five trauma victims, in a series of crashes involving dozens of vehicles on the Pennsylvania Turnpike that began just after 8 a.m. Friday. Traffic along the turnpike was backed up for miles, the Associated Press reported.

As the South and Mid-Atlantic regions continued to dig out Friday, the storm, carrying heavy snows and gusty winds, moved through New England, according to the National Weather Service. Despite sunny skies in previously hard-hit regions, hundreds of thousands of people remained without electricity, mainly in the South, and more than 20 people have died, including a pregnant woman killed by a plow in Brooklyn. Her baby son was delivered by emergency cesarean section on Thursday.

Snow falls, already at record levels after a series of storms this season, continued to accumulate. More than 22 inches of snow was reported in Somerset County, Pa., and parts of upstate New York received more than two feet of snow.

The nation’s airline system was beginning to recover. More than 10,000 flights had been canceled in recent days since the storm came roaring out of the Southwest, through the Deep South and following the traditional track of a nor’easter up the East Coast. On Friday, cancellations dropped to about 1,100 from 6,500 on Thursday, according to Flightaware.com, a website that monitors the airline system....

"Snow in New York," a 1902 painting by Robert Henri