Blame Game Starts After N.E. Storm Passes

BOSTON -- Hundreds of school districts kept schools closed early Friday after the first major winter storm of the season walloped the Bay State, dumping as much as a foot of snow in some areas and causing massive traffic headaches around the region.

State officials were calling for investigations into what went wrong with management of a storm that forecasters had been predicting for days, leaving thousands of commuters and school students stuck on highways for hours trying to get home Thursday afternoon.

Secretary of State Bill Galvin called for an investigation into what went wrong.

"The fact that this was a relatively modest snow storm, well predicted, points to the failure of leadership, the failure of direction, the lack of coordination, the lack of metropolitan planning. We can't have ... this is unacceptable," Galvin said.

One man said it took him five hours to get home, and countless others had similar tales to tell. Some motorists simply abandoned their vehicles at rest stops and on roadways.

The Massachusetts Highway Department, which deployed 4,000 pieces of snow removal equipment for the storm, responded in a prepared statement, saying, "We did the best we could with the conditions we had. State roads were treated two hours before the storm hit. We were ahead of the storm until the mass exodus."

"The timing did not fall right," said Peter Judge, spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. "Gridlock traffic has made it more difficult to plow and treat the roads."

Gov. Deval Patrick was said to be planning a meeting with his staff Friday to review storm management issues.

In Boston, schools were not released early Thursday, and some students reported that it took hours for them to get home on school buses. One student said it took him five hours to get home and it's normally a 20-minute drive. Boston's new school Superintendent Carol Johnson apologized for not letting students out earlier and Boston schools were closed Friday.

The parking ban in Boston was lifted at 6 a.m. Friday, but scores of residents had their cars towed for not heeding the ban.

Storm Team 5 meteorologist Mike Wankum said the storm left 13 inches of snow in Whitman and Hanson, with more than 11 inches in Easton and Mansfield. The snow fell at a rate of an inch-and-a-half-an-hour before easing up and moving offshore at mid-evening. Wankum said accumulations ranged from 8 to 13 inches across the state.

Temperatures were expected to warm up a bit Friday to help melt off some of the snow and help with the cleanup. Many roads were still rutted and icy, especially many of the secondary roadways.

Massport spokesman Phil Orlandella said as many as 450 flights scheduled to arrive or depart Logan Airport Thursday were canceled. The airport was open Friday, but Orlandella said more cancellations and delays were expected as the airlines try to catch up.

A weekend nor'easter was expected to bring another round of snow, sleet, rain and wind beginning Saturday night.