Tens of thousands without power after nor’easter dumps snow on northeast US
Tens of thousands of people are without power following a nor’easter that brought whiteout conditions, high winds and well-below-normal temperatures.
The electrical-outage tracking website PowerOutage.us reported that 150,000 people from New England and an additional 28,000 people from New York were without power as of Wednesday afternoon. Warmer weather is expected later in the week, but as much as 3 feet of snow fell in the area, causing many school cancellations.
National Weather Service meteorologist Frank Pereira said the storm is centered off the coast of New England, and some snow showers are still affecting parts of the region. He said the storm will gradually move off to the east.
The Manchester, N.H.-based ABC affiliate WMUR reported that some light accumulation was possible on Wednesday as some snow showers continued to move through the area.
The highest accumulation of snow was reported in the towns of Peterborough, N.H., and Ashby, Mass., with 35 inches, while 2 feet of snow fell in northern New York and the Catskill Mountains.
NBC10 Boston reported that snow fell at a rate of an inch per hour in some parts of Massachusetts through Tuesday afternoon before slowing to half an inch per hour. Wind gusts reached 45 to 60 miles per hour
Alec O’Meara, a spokesperson for the electricity company Unitil, said the company is expecting a multiday effort to restore people’s power. The company services thousands of customers in New England.
The storm also caused some property damage, as a barn at a dairy farm in Dracut, Mass., collapsed and killed several cows. The dome for an inflatable sports arena in Goffstown, N.H., collapsed as the town received 15 inches of snow.
As many as 2,100 flights were canceled nationwide at the height of the storm on Tuesday, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware. Airports in the Boston and New York City areas experienced the most cancellations.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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