Huge Eastern storm darkens homes, disrupts travel

[February 26, 2010]  PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A huge, windy winter storm lingered Friday over the Northeast, cutting power to at least a half-million customers, fanning a hotel fire in New Hampshire, and disrupting air and road travel across the region.

Power failures were so bad in New Hampshire that even the state Emergency Operations Center was operating on a generator. Winds across the region were near 50 mph as utility companies prepared for even more outages due to toppled trees and near-blizzard conditions.

Public Service of New Hampshire, the state's largest utility, reported power cut to at least 237,000 customers and said it would take days before everyone's lights flickered back on.

Officials in Massachusetts said the storm had knocked out power to 100,000 homes and businesses by early Friday, mostly in the northeastern part of the state. The numbers were 200,000 in New York, mostly in the Hudson Valley north of New York City, 25,000 in Vermont and more than 1,500 in New Jersey.

In New York City, 10 inches of snow had fallen before dawn and more was expected. 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.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who had said Thursday that the nation's largest public school district would stay open, changed his mind. It's the second snow day of the month there, but only the fourth in six years.

Eric Warner of Brooklyn had to brave it. He drove a truckload of milk, eggs and cheese from Teaneck, N.J., into Manhattan. The roads were terrible, he said, and even carrying the crates was hard.

"When the snow hits you, it feels like little needles," he said.

It's not just the schoolchildren who won't be headed in today.

New Jersey Transit canceled all buses in the northern half of the state before the morning commute began in earnest, including those that take workers to New York. Government offices in New Jersey were opening two hours late.

A day after airlines canceled hundreds of flights across the Northeast, the real threat was expected to be the strong wind that could create blizzard conditions.

In Hampton, N.H., winds helped spread a fire that started in an unoccupied oceanfront hotel, damaging another six to eight businesses, including a restaurant and a games arcade, fire Capt. David Lang said. No injuries were reported, and no cause had been identified.

One day after sections of northeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Maine 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.

Much of the region, particularly Philadelphia and southern New Jersey, only recently finished cleaning up from a pair of storms a few weeks ago.

The latest winter storm was packing wet, heavy snow that could dump a foot or more in some areas and powerful, damaging winds could complicate any cleanup.

The National Weather Service said a potent area of low pressure was expected to linger off Long Island on Friday before drifting slowly north toward southern New England and weakening on Saturday.

In northeastern Pennsylvania on Thursday, National Guard forces rescued dozens of high school students on a ski trip in Susquehanna County when their buses got stuck on Route 374. A Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency spokesman said the 70 students and chaperones were taken to a Red Cross center in Uniondale, and no injuries were reported.

Nearly 20 inches of snow blanketed Pocono Summit, in the northeastern part of the state, while farther south, Philadelphia received just a dusting from the first day of the double-barreled storm. Up to 12 more inches was expected in the city, which has endured it's snowiest winter on record, with more than 70 inches.

[Associated Press; By GEOFF MULVIHILL]

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Kathy McCormack in Hampton, N.H., Michael Rubinkam in Allentown, Pa., and Kiley Armstrong in New York City.

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