March Nor'easter: Beverly Snow Emergency Parking Ban Declared

BEVERLY, MA — Beverly declared a snow emergency parking ban for 6 p.m. Tuesday night with wind-swept rain expected to turn to a period of heavy wet snow before the March nor'easter winds down later in the evening.

No parking will be allowed on any municipal streets. Violators may be ticketed or towed.

Municipal lots are open for residents with metered prices in effect during normal meter hours. The MBTA garage on Rantoul Street was to be open to residents as of 4 p.m. Use the PayPal app to pay for parking in that garage.

Short-term parking will be allowed downtown during business hours with overnight parking prohibited. Residents are asked to clear snow from storm basins and hydrants. Under a city ordinance, homeowners must clear the sidewalks in front of their residences.

It is illegal to dump snow in the street. Those with basketball hoops in the street are asked to remove them. Beverly High Schools were also dismissed early Tuesday because of the forecast. All afternoon and evening activities were canceled.

The Beverly Public Library was scheduled to close at 3 p.m. on Tuesday.

Winter storm warnings were extended farther east in Massachusetts as a nor'easter arrived in the state, promising a hefty dose of snow for many areas. The National Weather Service early Tuesday updated its snow predictions, moving higher snow totals into Essex County and the Boston area.

Meanwhile, new winter storm warnings were set to go into effect at 10 a.m. encompassing all of Middlesex, Essex and Suffolk counties.

As of noon, up to 24 inches of snow had already fallen in Northern Central Massachusetts in Ashby, Ashburnham, Gardner and Fitchburg.

The storm was already beginning to take a toll on infrastructure as of sunrise. Some 70,000 residents were without power as of 10:30 a.m., mostly clustered in the Berkshires and Central Massachusetts.

On the Mass Pike, 40 mph speed restrictions were in place between Westfield and the New York border. The MBTA canceled all Charlestown and Hingham-Hull ferry service on Tuesday with very high winds expected along the coast.

Gov. Maura Healey on Monday evening ordered all non-emergency executive branch employees to stay home on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency was planning to open its emergency operations center in Framingham at 8 a.m. Tuesday to monitor conditions.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)