New England digs out from second snowstorm in a week

[February 17, 2014]  By Victoria Cavaliere

(Reuters) — A winter blast left parts of the U.S. Northeast buried under a foot of snow on Sunday before heading toward coastal Canada, the second powerful storm system to slam the region in less than a week.

Swaths of Maine and Massachusetts were under a flood watch due to rain coming down on top of the snow, and gusty conditions threatened to down power lines and tree limbs through early Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

The storm dropped about 15 inches of wet, compact snow over Cape Cod, which juts off mainland Massachusetts, leaving 25,000 customers without power, according to electric utility NSTAR.

Most of those still without power were expected to have electricity back by late Sunday, the company said in a statement on its website.

Boston got about 4 inches of snow, the National Weather Service said.

Farther north in Maine, a steady rain on top of packed snow prompted a flood watch in most of the state's central, southern and coastal regions. Up to 14 inches of snow accumulation was recorded early Sunday in other parts of the state, the Weather Service said.

Another band of snow is expected to hit the Midwest and East Coast beginning overnight Sunday, according to forecasting service AccuWeather.

"There will be no rest for the snow-weary from the Midwest to East Coast as yet another quick-moving system threatens to lay down a swath of several inches of snow from Minnesota to the Northeast," Accuweather meteorologist Dan DePodwin said.

The storm will hit most of the states in those areas on Monday and Tuesday, forecasters predict.

The latest round of winter weather comes on the heels of a powerful storm system that pummeled the East Coast from Georgia to Maine last week, grounding thousands of flights and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without electricity as ice and snow downed power lines and tree limbs.

The storm system also snarled traffic and contributed to hundreds of car accidents.

The heavy snow this winter has depleted U.S. stocks of road salt. Connecticut, hit so far by 12 storms, requested federal assistance to help make up its shortfall.

(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Jonathan Oatis)

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