Tens of thousands of New England and New York residents were without power Saturday morning after the region suffered the first major snowfall of the season, bringing heavy snowfall. The mighty Nor’easter dumped 2 feet of snow in some places.
More than 160,000 customers in New England were in the dark as of the afternoon and another 20,000 were without power in New York as heavy snow brought tree limbs onto power lines, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks outages throughout the country.
Brianna Brooks, owner of Scott Brooks Towing in Townshend, Vt., connects a vehicle to a flatbed truck at the scene of a three-vehicle crash during a snow storm on Friday, December 16, 2022.
(Kristopher Radder/The Brattleboro Reformer via AP)
Vermont was hardest hit with Green Mountain Power reporting more than 35,000 outages on Saturday night. Green Mountain Power, which serves customers in Vermont, said more outages were possible there and temperatures were not expected to warm enough in the coming days to melt the snow.
State police in Vermont said officers responded to more than 80 car crashes Friday and advised drivers to slow down and stay safe. Some roads were also closed due to the impact of the storm.
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In New Hampshire, thousands of customers were without power Saturday. As of 5 p.m. Saturday, about 44,000 customers still had no power, up from about 60,500 outages around 9 a.m.
According to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, thousands of Bay State residents experienced power outages as utility companies rushed to restore power to their families’ homes. Most of the outages in Massachusetts occurred in the western part of the Commonwealth, as well as parts of the Worcester area and some parts of Greater Boston and the Cape that experienced power outages.
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In Maine, Central Maine Power was reporting 69,750 outages as of Saturday morning. According to the Maine State Police, approximately 50 car accidents were reported across the state Friday night, with the majority occurring on interstate highways and the Maine Turnpike.
Unlike Vermont, Connecticut has seen relatively few statewide power outages and Eversource reported about 380 statewide outages.
Restoration efforts were complicated by snow still falling in some places, making travel dangerous.
Doug Foley, president of electrical operations for Eversource in New Hampshire, said snow-covered roads made it difficult for workers to reach communities to assess damage and make repairs.
“We are still experiencing system damage in parts of the state where heavy, wet snow continues to fall, and hundreds of additional crews are coming to New Hampshire to support our restoration effort,” Foley said in an emailed statement.
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“Clearing downed trees to reach outage sites has been slow and difficult,” Mike Burke, the utility’s vice president of field operations, said in a statement.
More than 2 feet of snow was recorded in parts of Vermont and western New York, with many communities across the region seeing more than a foot, according to the National Weather Service.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
