New York

Long Island Woman Dies While Shoveling Snow, Marking 4th Death Linked to Latest Nor'easter

Some parts of New York saw more than 16 inches of snow -- Patchogue had 20.1

What to Know

  • Four deaths have been blamed on the so-called four'easter, including one of a Long Island woman shoveling snow
  • The 4th nor'easter this month hammered the tri-state Wednesday with more than more than one foot of snow in some spots
  • Three nor'easters earlier this month already cut power to hundreds of thousands of people and wreaked havoc on the region's transit systems

A Long Island woman died while shoveling snow Wednesday, marking the fourth storm-related tri-state death from the latest nor'easter. The powerful storm, the fourth of the month, dropped snow on parts of New York, including in the area where the woman died, at a stunning rate of 4 to 5 inches an hour.

Nassau County police said Thursday the 62-year-old Bellmore woman was discovered in the snow at around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday. It's believed she had a heart attack while shoveling snow. 

Police in Toms River, New Jersey, added the death of an 87-year-old woman to the storm's toll: her body was found around 6:20 a.m. Thursday in the snow about a mile away from her home. Cops say she suffered from dementia and Alzheimer's and had gone missing from her family's home around midnight as snow still fell.

And in Barnegat, police say a 56-year-old man with cardiac issues operating his snowblower Wednesday night died.

Another death Wednesday was already linked to the storm: a 51-year-old woman was killed in a weather-related van rollover on the Wantagh State Parkway near the Hempstead Turnpike on Long Island in the morning.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said at a news conference in Woodbridge Thursday that initial reports indicated an accident on Interstate 78 resulted in a fatality. He says the person remains in the ICU, but didn't give additional details.

The so-called four’easter, which dumped up to 20 inches of snow in parts of Long Island, shut down airports and schools, and caused dozens of wrecks across the tri-state area.

The first three storms this month had already ravaged parts of the region, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of people, crippling East Coast travel and had been blamed for other fatalities.

Storm Team 4 says the active weather pattern is expected to continue for the remainder of March, meaning even more serious storms are possible.

According to the National Weather Service, the last time the northeast saw four nor'easters in less than a month was about 30 years ago -- between the evening of Dec. 30, 1986 and Jan. 26, 1987.

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