Holiday in Sunday

Yet snow was falling. Not a light, mischievous form of frozen precipitation, either, but heavy, wet flakes driven on the gusts of an angry weather system barreling across the Northeast from the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday, cracking sturdy limbs and toppling power lines as it went. It also shattered records, threatening some more than a century old, and elicited the kinds of warnings from public officials that are not usually heard until deep in winter.

On Sunday,about 2.3 million customers from Pennsylvania reaching up into New England found themselves without electricity, according to reports, as the region was lashed by surprisingly high winds, snowdrifts and surging seas. On a weekend that might normally have been spent raking leaves, people were forced to react quickly — retrieving shovels, charging batteries, finding fuel for generators, searching for boots and mittens and checking refrigerators and cupboards.

In Connecticut, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said at a briefing Sunday morning that more that the 750,000 homes were without power, breaking a  record for the state that was set in August  when the remnants of Hurricane Irene hit the state. People could be expect to be without electricity for as long as a week, the governor said.

The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency reported Sunday that more than 650,000 customers were without power across the state. Crews were out assessing the damage but could not provide an estimate of when people would get power back. In New Jersey, PSE&G reported Sunday morning that  about 271,000 customers remained without power, down from about 350,000. Most of the customers were in Bergen, Essex, Passaic, Union and Middlesex counties, the utility said. Power companies serving New Hampshire reported 280,000 customers without power.

The conditions in Washington were so bad Saturday night that the White House interrupted its Halloween party, and President Obama comforted some children whose costumes were obscured by winter coats as they lined up at the North Portico for a treat of cookies, M&Ms and dried fruit.

“I know it’s cold here; you guys doing all right?” he asked. “It’s not ideal out here.”

He could have been speaking to a great swath of the nation.

By evening’s end, the storm, a menacing northeaster, had winds of up to 60 miles per hour and blanketed parts of New Jersey and southern New England with more than a foot of snow before it showed any signs of petering out by early Sunday. In coastal areas, shorelines battered in late August by Tropical Storm Irene’s tidal surges were readying for more flooding.

The storm has been cited in three deaths. In southeastern Pennsylvania, an 84-year-old man was killed when a snow-laden tree fell on his home, The Associated Press reported. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy of Connecticut said that one person had died in his state, in a Colchester traffic accident. And in Springfield, Mass., a 20-year-old man was electrocuted by a downed power line, the A.P. said.

“We seem to have hit the jackpot,” said Charlie Foley, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. “It is unusual to have something like this before Halloween.”

By midday, the snowfall tallies were already threatening to break records. Roughly six inches of snow had already piled up in Lee, Mass., in the heart of the Berkshires, where gusts of winds were swirling. In Worcester, Mass., the record of 7.5 inches was set in 1979. By 7 p.m., the National Weather Service reported that 6.9 inches had fallen there, but by 11 p.m. the snow still falling hard and unabated. The forecast there was for 11 inches.

In West Milford, N.J., there were 18 inches of snow reported at 10:30 p.m. Earlier in the evening, at about 8:15 p.m., 19 inches had accumulated in Plainfield, Mass., with four or five more hours of accumulation predicted. The highest snowfall in New York State was in Orange County, where about a foot piled up, according to the National Weather Service.

source : http://www.nytimes.com/