Bitter cold follows storm on East Coast

BOSTON— Frigid temperatures, some that could feel as cold as -34 C, moved across the East Coast on Friday as the region dug out from a massive winter storm that brought more than a foot of snow, hurricane-force winds and coastal flooding a day earlier.

In Atlantic Canada, work crews fanned out across the region Friday to deal with the mess left behind by hurricane-force winds, flooded coastal roads and downed power lines that, at one point, left more than 110,000 homes and businesses in the dark — most of them in Nova Scotia, the province that endured the strongest winds.

The brawniest gusts were recorded in Cape Breton, where a 170-km/h blast streaked through the rural area of Grand Etang, known for producing powerful winds.

In the Halifax area, which weathered its share of power outages, siding was ripped off some homes, limbs were torn from trees and the roof was ripped from at least one home in Dartmouth.

Forecasters predicted strong winds and record-breaking cold air to hang around through the weekend.

The arctic blast could make temperatures feel as low as -26 C to -32 C from Philadelphia to Boston and make residents of states such as Maryland and Virginia shiver from temperatures ranging from -12 C to -9 C.

The wind chill could make it feel like -37 C in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts, the National Weather Service said.

Linda Libby, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said the system was expected to move toward Anticosti Island as it tracked up the Gulf of St. Lawrence near Labrador.