Frankenstorm closed many stores Monday and Tuesday along the Eastern Seaboard from North Carolina north to Connecticut, but also delivered more than a foot of snow in the southern Appalachians. The snow will enable some ski areas to open weeks earlier than usual.
Assessing the impact on retailers, like the recovery itself, will take weeks. While many stores were able to reopen in the affected areas Tuesday, it could take up to four days to restore power to major swaths of New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, news wires reported. It could take longer still to restore commuter rail services in New York city.
REI was able to open all but three stores in the Tri-state area (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut) Tuesday. It's stores in Marlton, NJ; Norwalk, CT and Carle Place, NY remained closed, while its stores in SoHo (Manhattan), Yonkers, NY and East Hanover, NJ were opened for limited hours. The remainder of its stores in the area opened by noon after operating on limited hours Monday to allow customers to prepare for the hurricane and purchase emergency prepardeness items, while allowing employees to also prepare for the storm.
Further south and west, the remnants of Hurricane Sandy combined with a cold front to dump as much as 24 inches of snow along the southern Appalachians from Maryland down to North Carolina. In Boone, NC, Sugar Mountain said it would open Wednesday, the earliest in its 43 year history. The resort, which peaks at 5,300 feet above sea level, has been making snow since last week using eight new hi-tech snow making machines.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstration forecasts called for snow at Snowshoe Mountain Resort, Timberline Four Seasons Resort, Canaan Valley Resort and Winterplace Ski Resort in West Virginia; Mad River Mountain and Snow Trails in Ohio; and Seven Springs and Hidden Valley Four Seasons Resort in Pennsylvania, according to OnTheSnow.com.
