700 000 without power in US
2013-02-09 20:29
New York - A record-breaking blizzard packing hurricane-force winds pummeled
the northeastern United States on Saturday, causing at least two storm-related
deaths, cutting power to 700 000 homes and businesses and shutting down travel.
The mammoth storm that stretched from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic coast
dumped more than 90 cm of snow across the Northeast, the National Weather
Service said. Blizzard and flood warnings were in effect for the coast.
In Stratford, Connecticut, Mayor John Harkins said he had never seen such a
heavy snowfall, with rates of 12.5 cm an hour at times overnight, he told local
WTNH television.
"Even the plows are getting stuck," Harkins said.
The storm concentrated its fury on Connecticut, Rhode Island and
Massachusetts, with the top snowfall 95 cm in Milford, Connecticut.
Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee banned all travel on roads in order to
aid snow plow crews. He told CNN that National Guard troops were rescuing
stranded motorists, especially at uncleared on-ramps.
The mammoth storm dumped 73.2 cm of snow on Portland, Maine, breaking a 1979
record, and the weather service said there is more on the way.
Police in New York's Suffolk County turned to snowmobiles in some cases to
rescue hundreds of motorists stuck overnight on the Long Island Expressway,
said police spokesperson Rich Glanzer. Some spent the night in their cars.
In Poughkeepsie, New York, a man in his 70s was killed when a driver lost
control of her car and hit him, media reported. An 80-year-old woman clearing
her driveway in Prospect, Rhode Island, died on Friday when she was struck by a
hit-and-run driver, a spokesperson for state emergency services said.
A 30-year-old motorist in Auburn, New Hampshire, died when his car went off
the road, but the man's health, and not the weather, might have been a factor
in the accident, state authorities said.
Utility companies reported about 700 000 customers without electricity
across Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut as the wet, heavy snow
brought down tree branches and power lines.
The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth, Massachusetts, lost power and
shut down automatically late on Friday, but there was no threat to the public,
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.
Almost 2 000 flights were canceled on Saturday, according to FlightAware,
which tracks airline delays. Boston's Logan International Airport and Bradley
International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, were shut down.
The National Weather Service said the storm was expected to taper off from
West to East into the afternoon. Snowfall is forecast to total from 60 to 90 cm
in eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
