Five killed in US windstorm, forecast till Monday

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The Wider Image: In Puerto Rico, a housing crisis U.S. storm aid won't solv
The Wider Image: In Puerto Rico, a housing crisis U.S. storm (Representational image) Reuter

At least five people, including two children, have been killed in the ongoing windstorm sweeping the US East Coast.

A six-year-old boy died in Virginia on Friday after a tree fell on his house when he was sleeping, reports Xinhua news agency.

Later on Friday in Putnam county, New York, an 11-year-old boy died when a tree fell onto his home and trapped him.

The three other fatalities comprised a 77-year-old woman in Baltimore, a man in his 70s in Rhode Island and a 44-year-old man in Virginia, all struck by wind-felled trees.

The highest wind gust was 134 km per hour in both East Falmouth, Massachusetts, and Little Compton, Rhode Island.

Hurricane-force wind gusts will continue through coastal Massachusetts and Rhode Island will continue into Saturday, according to the US National Weather Service.

Here's NWS forecast till Monday:

"Valid 00Z Sat Mar 03 2018 - 00Z Mon Mar 05 2018 ...Conditions will gradually improve across the Northeast and northern Mid-Atlantic states as a powerful storm system pulls away from the New England coast Friday night...

Heavy snow will continue across the mountains of California and should spread across the Central Great Basin and northern Rockies this weekend... ..

Weather will become increasingly active across the Great Plains while a large scale upper trough edges out into the central U.S. late this weekend...

Strong winds, heavy rain, and accumulating snow will continue across the Northeast and northern Mid-Atlantic states Friday evening, but then conditions should gradually improve as a powerful storm system pulls away from the coast Friday night.

High pressure building in behind the exiting storm should keep much of the region dry through the weekend, with the exception of some light snow showers across the Lower Great Lakes and interior New England. The pattern will remain unsettled over the Western U.S. as an anomalous large scale upper trough progresses inland this weekend.

Snow will continue to accumulate over the mountains of California, and a surface boundary settling in across Nevada, northern Utah, and Wyoming should help spread the threat for heavy snow into the Central Great Basin and northern Rockies.

Weather will become increasingly active across the Great Plains late this weekend as the anomalous Western U.S. trough edges out into the Nation's mid-section.

Moisture returning from the Western Gulf should help fuel precipitation developing across Texas and the Lower Mississippi Valley on Sunday, while strong winds and a swath of heavy snow are expected across the northern Plains as a surface low rapidly deepens in the lee of the Colorado Rockies."

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