Agencies/Concord, NH

More snow was predicted yesterday for residents of northern New England, a day after a fast-moving storm brought about a foot to many communities, but rain and warmer temperatures could present new problems for other states.
A rain and snow mixture is possible afternoon along the northern New England coast, but inland communities could see between 1 and 4 inches of snow, said Eric Schwibs, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine.
That won’t be nearly as much as the snow from Tuesday’s storm, which packed an unexpected wallop. Forecasts originally called for 4 to 7 inches in the heaviest hit, southern part of New Hampshire, but data collected by the National Weather Service show totals of 15.5 inches in Chichester, 14 inches in Rochester and 12.2 in Concord. Nearly 10 inches fell in Kennebunk, Maine.
In western Pennsylvania, a chain-reaction crash involving an estimated 50 vehicles closed a 13-mile stretch of westbound lanes of an icy Interstate 80 yesterday. The pileup near the Clearfield exit involved several tractor-trailers and one gasoline tanker, a Department of Transportation spokeswoman said. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries.
Elsewhere in the country, as warmer temperatures bring rain and melt snow, concerns are being raised about the potential for flooding and collapsing roofs.
In Chicago, the weather service says people who live along rivers and in flood prone areas should prepare for possible flooding as the mounds of snow in yards and along streets melt.
In Ohio, where meteorologists predict a thunderstorm today, there could be up to an inch and a half of rain in parts of the state, causing flooding.
Flooding is not expected to be a concern in New England. Meteorologist Mike Kistner in Gray, Maine, said the warm-up is expected to be short-lived, with another bout of arctic air headed into the area after a few days. It’s expected to last well into next week.
The weight of snow on top of buildings in Pennsylvania and Michigan has officials worried after several roofs and awnings have collapsed this winter. One person in southeastern Pennsylvania suffered minor injuries Tuesday when a home’s carport caved in, and two women in western Michigan suffered injuries described as non-life-threatening when a roof collapsed yesterday.
Temperatures above freezing in places where the storm passed through Tuesday should move up to the 40s to mid-50s for the rest of the week, said meteorologist John Cristantello, of the National Weather Service in New York.
In snow-struck northern New England, “Saturday will be a beach day,” in the 40s, said Schwibs. “We’ve lowered our standards.”
The latest storm came days after the Southeast and Northeast were paralyzed with heavy snow, ice and massive power outages.
Rock salt was in short supply in the US Northeast on Tuesday after successive winter storms led to critical shortages in Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania, while New Jersey scrambled to secure a huge shipment stuck at a port in Maine.
The shortages come as the East Coast was slammed by a third winter storm system in a single week, leaving many states over-budget for snow removal and running low on critical supplies, like rock salt, which is used to help melt ice and snow packed roads and public areas.
The 40,000 tons of rock salt remained in Searsport, Maine, days after New Jersey was denied a waiver of federal shipping rules that would have allowed an available foreign-flagged vessel to bring it into a Newark port.
Instead, efforts to get the ice-melting material to New Jersey remained stymied by the 1920 Maritime Act, also known as the Jones Act, enacted to protect the American shipping industry from foreign competition.
“It’s very frustrating. We could have had that shipment here by this past weekend,” said New Jersey Department of Transportation Spokesman Joe Dee. Salt supplies were running so low in the state that crews were “scraping the bottom of the barrel”, he said.
With another month before the first day of spring on March 20, Dee said there was barely enough salt to cover one more storm.
“And if it’s a major storm, not even one storm,” Dee said. “If we don’t have the salt to treat the roads, we are going to have major problems.”
New Jersey officials said they have sent an American flagged vessel to retrieve part of the shipment, but it won’t arrive back in the state until next week.
The Department of Homeland Security, which would issue the waiver to allow for the shipment, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
New York City, meantime, has used the most salt in recent memory this winter, spreading more than 460,000 tons so far this season, compared to 404,247 in 2000-2001, according to city Department of Sanitation spokeswoman Belinda Mager. Earlier this month, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said New York City and Long Island were facing “dire” salt shortages.
Connecticut on Tuesday was still awaiting new shipments of salt after Governor Dannel Malloy last week declared a state of emergency because of dwindling supplies. The state said it was asking for assistance from both the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the White House.
Western Pennsylvania officials said after the latest band of weather on Tuesday, salt inventory was at a critical low. In Pittsburgh, the city’s Department of Public Works said it was mixing its current salt supply with other chemicals to make it last longer.
Transportation officials in Massachusetts said they currently had enough rock salt on hand to handle the latest storm but were taking precautions to ensure the spreading was done with minimal waste.