Northeast Storm Leaves 1M Without Power

A strong-willed winter storm parked itself over the Northeast today, bringing hurricane-force winds, flooding, and more than 2 feet of snow as it cut power to more than a million homes and businesses. Schools were shut down as far west as Cleveland and roads closed as far south as West Virginia. In New York City, 17 inches of snow had fallen before dawn. A man was killed by a falling tree branch in Central Park, one of at least three deaths blamed on the storm.

Power failures were so severe and widespread in New Hampshire—330,000 customers in the dark in a state of 1.3 million people—that even the state Emergency Operations Center was operating on a generator. The highest wind reported was 91 mph in Portsmouth, NH, well above hurricane force of 74 mph. Gusts hit 60 mph or more from the mountains of West Virginia to New York's Long Island to Massachusetts.
(More snowstorm stories.)