Northeast wakes up to deep snow, power outages

NEW YORK — The Northeast is digging out from its second powerful nor’easter in less than a week that left behind some areas with more than 2 feet of snow, hundreds of thousands without power, school closures and travel chaos.

Some places saw more than 2 feet of snow by late Wednesday and many communities woke up Thursday to a foot or more of snow-covered cars.

The late-winter storm left more than 800,000 customers without power in the Northeast — counting some who have been without electricity since last Friday’s destructive nor’easter.

Montville, New Jersey, got more than 26 inches from Wednesday’s nor’easter. North Adams, Massachusetts, registered 24 inches, and Sloatsburg, New York, got 26 inches.

Major cities along the Interstate 95 corridor saw much less. Philadelphia International Airport recorded about 6 inches, while New York City’s Central Park saw less than 3 inches.

The storm made traveling treacherous. Thousands of flights across the region were canceled.

It was not much better on the ground. Members of the Northeastern University women’s basketball team pushed their bus back on course after it was stuck in the snow outside a practice facility in Philadelphia. The Huskies were in the city to compete in the 2018 CAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. The team posted a video of the feat on its Twitter account.

Amtrak suspended service between New York City and Boston until at least 10 a.m. Thursday. New York City’s Metro-North commuter railroad suspended service on lines connecting the city to its northern suburbs and Connecticut because of downed trees.

It was not immediately known when service would be restored.

“It’s kind of awful,” said New York University student Alessa Raiford, who put two layers of clothing on a pug named Jengo before taking him for a walk in slushy, sloppy Manhattan, where rain gave way to wet snow in the afternoon. “I’d rather that it be full-on snowing than rain and slush. It just makes it difficult.”

The storm was not predicted to be as severe as the nor’easter that toppled trees, flooded coastal communities and caused more than 2 million power outages from Virginia to Maine last Friday.

It still proved to be a headache for the tens of thousands of customers still in the dark from the earlier storm — and for the crews trying to restore power to them.

Massachusetts was hardest hit by outages, with more than 300,000 without service early Thursday. In New Jersey, the state’s major utilities reported more than 247,000,000 customers without power a day after the storm.

In Worcester, Massachusetts, public works crews late Wednesday had a hard time keeping up with the snow.

“It’s heavy. Well, it was so warm earlier that it just melted when it hit the ground and now it’s heavy,” said Jesse Nadeau. “It’s the heaviest part of the storm right now for the next couple of hours. Heavy and wet.”

In North White Plains, New York, 10 people were taken to hospitals with symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning after running a generator inside a home, police said. All were expected to survive.

In Manchester Township, New Jersey, police said a teacher was struck by lightning while holding an umbrella on bus duty outside a school. The woman felt a tingling sensation but didn’t lose consciousness. She was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.