Evacuations, cancelled flights as storm approaches Northeast
Marina Molina reports on nor'easter
What's in a name? For the folks who forecast the weather, apparently a lot.
The National Weather Service said Wednesday it would not recognize The Weather Channel’s name for the nor’easter that is expected to hit the East Coast, which is still trying to recover from last week’s hurricane.
The Weather Channel, which decided to name winter storms, dubbed this one ‘Athena,’ perhaps after the Greek goddess of wisdom. Winds could already be felt kicking up along the coast Wednesday morning, but the storm is not considered to be nearly the threat of Sandy.
The National Weather Service released a statement that it does not use the name of winter storms in its products. An email and phone call from FoxNews.com to the channel and agency were not immediately returned.
In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered police to use their patrol car loudspeakers to warn vulnerable residents about evacuating, one of a number of measures that the beleaguered city was taking even as weather experts said Wednesday's nor'easter could be weaker than expected.
"Even though it's not anywhere near as strong as Sandy -- nor strong enough, in normal times, for us to evacuate anybody -- out of precaution and because of the changing physical circumstances, we are going to go to some small areas and ask those people to go to higher ground," Bloomberg said Tuesday.