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A major winter storm dumped more than a foot of snow across parts of the northeast, knocking out power at one point to more than 250,000 customers, and more snow was on the way, forecasters said Tuesday.
No deaths were reported in the northeast that hit New England and other states, but more than 2 feet of snow had been reported in parts of Worcester County, Massachusetts, as of 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to the national weather service.
“It’s not over,” Vermont Governor Phil Scott said. “We have concerns that high winds will bring and more snow to other parts of the state. Lots of power cuts in the southern part.
About 19 inches of snow was recorded in Rutland County, Vermont, before 5 p.m. Tuesday. An additional 6 to 12 inches was possible in this state, as well as northern New Hampshire and Maine, the weather service said.
There were more than 260,000 customers without power in New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine as of 8 p.m., according to the tracker. PowerOutage.us website. Utility National Grid said heavy, wet snow and winds caused extensive damage to its systems.
More than 700 flights to or from LaGuardia and Newark airports in the New York area and Logan International in Boston were canceled on Tuesday, according to flight tracking. FlightAware website.
In Derry, New Hampshire, where about a foot of snow fell, a child was trapped by a falling tree, firefighters said. Firefighters and police used chainsaws and their bare hands to free the child, who was taken to hospital with minor injuries, the department said.
“Please stay off the roads if possible,” New Hampshire State Police tweeted on Tuesday, warning of whiteout conditions. There were more than 120 accidents and off-road vehicles in the seven hours between 5 a.m. and noon, he added.
In California, more than 300,000 homes and businesses lost power on Tuesday as an “atmospheric river” continued to impact the state, according to PowerOutage.us And the weather service.
More than 800,000 people in the western United States were under a flood warning Tuesday afternoon, according to the weather service.
The rain had mostly stopped in San Francisco, but forecasters there warned of strong winds that could topple trees. San Francisco International Airport declared strong winds forced a stop on the groundwhich was later lifted.
According to the fire department and NBC Bay Area. No injuries were reported.
“The wind was blowing extremely hard, it was even difficult to walk and you had to really bend over it,” San Francisco resident Andrew Bowers told the station. “And then the benches started to rock, and I just heard a big boom.”
Bowers said people ran when glass shattered on the street and hid under an overhang of a building.
In Monterey County, crews worked to finish filling the width of a 400-foot breach in a levee on the Pajaro Riverwhich opened during heavy rain Friday night and flooded the town of Pajaro, officials said.
This will slightly reduce the outflow of the river, but construction of the wall at the levee is expected to take one to two weeks, Monterey County said. A second breach that opened near the mouth of the river was letting water flow out to the ocean and lowering flood levels, he said.
A landslide caused major damage to a home in Colfax, Placer County, northeast of Sacramento, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire, said. . There were no injuries and everyone is taken care of, he added.
Heavy rains in central and southern California through Tuesday evening could cause flooding in areas already vulnerable to recent rains, the weather service said.
In the southern and southeastern United States, more than 38 million people were under frost warnings, the agency said. Northern Alabama could see temperatures of 25 degrees Wednesday morning, the Birmingham Weather Service said.