'Life-threatening' blizzard shuts down much of U.S. Northeast

By Jonathan Allen and Barbara Goldberg NEW YORK (Reuters) - A life-threatening blizzard barreled into the U.S. Northeast, affecting up to 20 percent of Americans as it kept workers and students housebound, halted thousands of flights and prompted New York to ban cars from roads and shut down subway trains. With memories still fresh of Sandy, a superstorm that ravaged the East Coast in 2012, the governors of six East Coast states declared emergencies. The National Weather Service warned of a "life-threatening blizzard" that could dump as much as 30 inches (76 cm) of snow on parts of the region at rates up to four inches an hour. Winds might gust up to 55 mph (80 kph) around New York City.