MINEOLA, N.Y. -- Thanksgiving travelers hurried to change their plans and beat a storm expected to drop snow and rain on the crowded Washington-to-Boston corridor today on one of the busiest travel days of the year.
Forecasters said major Northeast cities will probably see moderate to heavy rain most of the day, though New York and other places also were gearing up for several inches of snow.
Higher elevations west of the Interstate 95 corridor could see as much as 6-12 inches before the nor'easter exits tonight, meteorologist Andrew Orrison said.
"I always go on Tuesday to try to avoid the Wednesday rush, but it seems like more people are leaving on Tuesday now," said Bill Fraser, a landscaper from Henniker, N.H., who was taking a train from Boston to New Rochelle, N.Y., to visit his mother for Thanksgiving.
Jenna Bouffard, a New York City public-relations executive headed in the opposite direction, changed her bus ticket from today to Tuesday.
"I don't want to risk it," she said. "I'd rather be safe than sorry, and if it doesn't snow, then I just have an extra day at home with my family" in Uxbridge, Mass.
Major airlines dropped their ticket-change fees for people flying in and out of the Northeast, allowing passengers to try to get earlier flights, but most planes were filled.
By midafternoon Tuesday, just 14 flights within the U.S. were canceled for today, according to tracking service FlightAware. That's well below the norm for even a sunny day. United said it was planning to cancel 100 flights today in and out of Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey -- a small fraction of the traffic there. Delta planned to scrub 57 flights.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty airports, said it was lining up extra staff members and snow-removal equipment in the event of a heavy snowfall. Crews were prepared to work in 12-hour shifts if necessary, officials said.
At Newark Airport, retiree Sue Hansen, who lives in Roscoe, Ill., arrived early Tuesday to avoid the rush ahead of a big family reunion near Morristown, N.J.
"I've traveled the day before, and it was no good," she said, describing long lines, delays and lots of crowds the day before Thanksgiving. "This wasn't bad at all."
In Vermont, public-safety officials warned that travel could be treacherous. Up to 16 inches of snow was forecast in some areas.
There was a bright spot in the forecast for residents of western New York, which last week saw up to 7 feet of snow.
"Buffalo will predominantly miss this event," Orrison said.
Tuesday in Buffalo, officials said melting snow has flooded some basements and pooled in yards and roadways after last week's snowfall, but the region has dodged the kind of widespread flooding that residents had feared.
Information for this article was contributed by Jill Colvin, Denise Lavoie, Scott Mayerowitz, Karen Matthews and staff members of The Associated Press.
A Section on 11/26/2014