Kids in New York City can ignore their alarm clocks Friday morning, as the Department of Education announced just after 5 a.m. that all public schools will be closed as the massive winter storm continues to plod up the Atlantic coast, delivering a powerful dose of wet snow, heavy rain with flooding potential and damaging winds near 50 mph across the tri-state area.

One day after sections of New Jersey, New York dealt with upward of 20 inches of snow and portions of northern New England weathered heavy rains that pushed some rivers toward flood levels, more of the same was forecast throughout Friday. The latest winter storm was packing heavy snow that could dump a foot or more in some areas and powerful, potentially damaging winds that could cause power outages and complicate any cleanup.

City Hall sources said on Thursday that the mayor was confident that city plows could have streets clean and school custodians could have the sidewalks clean in time for classes Friday morning. But as conditions deteriorated overnight into the early morning hours, it became clear that making kids venture out into the blizzard-like storm would be dangerous.

The slow-moving storm by Friday morning had dumped about 10 inches of snow in New York City, where a man was killed by a falling snow-laden tree branch in Central Park — one of at least three deaths being blamed on the storm.

In New Jersey, the snow totals ranged from about 3 inches in Atlantic City to 18 inches in Passaic and Sussex counties in northern New Jersey, which could get up to 2 feet of snow before the sky clears on Saturday.

All NJ TRANSIT bus service in Northern New Jersey (all routes north of I-195 including service in and out of New York) was suspended until further notice due to weather conditions.

State government offices in New Jersey will delay opening for two hours Friday. Essential employees should report on schedule.

(Source: WCBSTV)