BOSTON — Hardy souls in New England spent their Sunday shoveling after a major storm dumped more than two feet of snow in some areas, causing multiple traffic accidents, downing power lines and leaving hundreds of thousands of people in the Northeast without electricity.
Road conditions were dangerous Saturday evening for crews working to restore power, according to Central Maine Power, which said the company’s focus overnight was on responding to emergency calls and making downed power lines safe.
Beginning at daylight Sunday, crews began assessing and clearing damage to begin large-scale power restoration efforts. The company said it expects a multi-day effort in the areas hardest hit by the storm.
“Damage to trees, poles and wires was significant overnight Saturday and our experts are taking stock of the damage today so we can get power to our customers as quickly and safely as possible,” said Jon Breed, of Central Maine. Energy, the state’s largest utility.
Police in the northeast reported hundreds of road accidents with cars spinning out and drivers struggling on icy roads.
As the storm subsided, about 200,000 customers were without power in Maine and another about 80,000 were without power in New Hampshire.
Breed said the company had prepared 150 crews in their service area ahead of the storm and another 200 crews arrived on Sunday.
Versant, Maine’s second-largest utility, reported about 15,000 outages Sunday morning, compared to 188,000 reported by Central Maine.
Zack Taylor, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said heavy snow from the storm extended across the region, including upstate and northern New York to Vermont, New Hampshire and most of Maine.
Many areas saw a total of 8 to 12 inches of snow, but there was one localized area that saw more than two feet of snow.
Some of the highest totals exceeded 30 inches in south-central Vermont.
“So overall it was a pretty big winter storm and for some areas this was the most snow they’ve seen all winter with a single storm,” Taylor said.
Cold weather fans – including skiers – enjoyed the snow.
Kevin Bell, vice president of marketing for Loon Mountain in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, said the more snow New England gets, the better it is for ski reports.
“It sets us up for a really good spring,” Bell said Saturday.
Major cities from Washington DC and Baltimore to Philadelphia, New York and Boston saw heavy rain and flooding, he said.
In New York, more than 90,000 customers were without power on Sunday morning. Areas north of New York City were among the hardest hit, according to online maps from National Grid and PowerOutage.us, a power outage tracking website.
The combination of sleet, freezing rain and heavy wet snow that toppled trees and power lines was also blamed for hundreds of delayed and canceled flights at area airports.
In New York City, wind and wind warnings were in effect until 2 a.m. Sunday, and flooding affected subway service. Rainwater also closed a portion of the Cross Island Parkway in Queens as police warned motorists of standing water on roads across the city.
In Lodi, New Jersey, flooding from the Saddle River inundated nearby roads.
Taylor said another significant winter storm is developing in the West and will last through Monday across much of the Rockies, Plains and upper Midwest.
“We’re looking at a pretty strong area of low pressure developing across Kansas this evening and then moving quickly toward the upper Midwest late Monday into early Tuesday,” he said.
That system is expected to bring heavy snow to parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, much of the Dakotas and even Nebraska and western Kansas with a potential of 8 to 12 inches of snow, with higher amounts in eastern Dakota and parts of central Minnesota. , he added.
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Associated Press writers Phil Marcelo in East Meadow, New York, and Julie Walker in New York City contributed to this report.