EASTERN U.S. BRACES FOR MORE FLOODS
9 people killed, 1.5 million customers without power
MORE than 1.5 million customers remained without power in the eastern United States early yesterday, and communities on the New England coast faced more flooding two days after a powerful storm snapped trees, downed wires and killed at least nine people.
The remnants of the storm, known as a nor’easter, lingered yesterday with flood watches and wind advisories in effect until 1pm in northeastern US hampering efforts to restore power.
The governors of Massachusetts and New York declared a state of emergency on Saturday afternoon, following similar announcements by the governors of Virginia and Maryland on Friday.
The moves give the states access to federal resources.
The storm carried hurricaneforce winds of more than 145kph, sending seawater into streets in Boston and nearby shore towns.
The National Weather Service (NWS) said while winds weakened yesterday and most of the rain and snow moved offshore, flooding and extreme high tides could still affect the coastal areas from Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Long Island, New York.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” said meteorologist David Roth at the weather service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
Private forecasting service AccuWeather said the storm dumped as much as 46cm of snow on parts of New York state and Pennsylvania. The Massachusetts town of East Bridgewater received nearly 15.2cm of rain, NWS said.
The storm snarled transportation from the Middle Atlantic into New England, with more than a quarter of flights into and out of New York’s three major airports and Boston’s airport cancelled on Friday, FlightAware.com said.
The problems carried over into Saturday, with hundreds of flights cancelled into and out of New York and Boston.