A large snowball that crashed into a Grove Quad dormitory at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. The crash ripped a wall off its studs and narrowly missed a window.


Agencies/Boston


Another round of snow made its way through the Northeast and into New England, dumping another heaping of snow on a region that continues to dig out from a previous storm.
New England was expected to be hit hardest by the latest blast of winter weather. The National Weather Service called for 10 to 14 inches of snow in eastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island.
At Boston’s Logan International Airport, some airlines cancelled flights ahead of Saturday night’s storm and delays were expected.
Eight to 10 inches was to fall in Connecticut along its Rhode Island border.
At its peak, the storm was expected to dump snow at the rate of 3 inches per hour, meteorologist William Babcock.
The weekend snowstorm comes on the heels of an earlier storm that blanketed the East Coast with snow and ice, caused at least 25 deaths and left hundreds of thousands without power. Parts of New York and Vermont ended up with more than 2 feet of snow.
Early Saturday, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick urged drivers to stay off the roads for a 12-hour period beginning at 5pm, saying, “It won’t be possible to keep up with the clearing of the roads.”
The newest storm was expected to spawn blizzard conditions along the Massachusetts coastline, including Cape Ann, Hingham, Cape Cod and surrounding islands.
“These areas could be seeing winds reaching up to 70mph, blowing snow and creating extremely poor visibility,” Babcock said. “People should be preparing for deteriorating conditions.”
Boston Mayor Martin Walsh announced that the city would deploy more than 600 snow plows, trucks and other equipment through Saturday evening to deal with the storm. He said additional police officers, firefighters and paramedics would be on hand throughout the storm to ensure public safety.
Elsewhere, in Maine, forecasts called for 12 to 18 inches of snow in some areas beginning Saturday night. The weather service warned that heavy snow and strong winds could create hazardous driving conditions. As a result, a 45mph speed restriction is in place for the entire Maine Turnpike.
A winter storm warning was issued for southeastern New Hampshire through Sunday. Six to 10 inches of snow was expected.
Farther south, New York City’s Central Park received 1½ inches of new snow after getting nearly a foot of snow Thursday.
In eastern Pennsylvania, from 2 to 5 inches fell before the storm moved out early Saturday evening. In Lancaster, the station WGAL-TV returned to the air a day after a portion of its station roof collapsed Friday.
Two math majors at Reed College lost control of a massive snowball that rolled into a dorm, knocking in part of a bedroom wall.
There were no injuries, but college spokesman Kevin Myers said Friday it will cost $2,000 to $3,000 to repair the building.
The incident happened last Saturday night following a rare trio of snowstorms in Portland.
Students started building the giant snowball on a campus quad near the dorm. Urged by a crowd, the math majors tried to make the snowball as big as possible by rolling it down the sidewalk that goes past the dorm.
“And the ball just got away from them,” Myers said.
After escaping their control, the boulder-sized snowball rolled about 15 yards before slamming into Unit #7. Three students heard the smack and discovered the fractured bedroom wall. The student whose dorm was damaged has not had to move.
Nobody weighed the snowball, but a maintenance worker who sliced it up for removal estimated it to weigh 800 pounds or more, Myers said.
The students responsible for the runaway snowball reported the incident and won’t be disciplined. Myers said they didn’t intend to cause damage and feel awful about what happened. He declined to release their names and said he didn’t know their class years.
Reed Magazine was first to report about the snowball.
“It was not the talk of campus until the story came out,” Myers said. “The people that were there knew about it, but now it has kind of taken us by storm.