Cleanup gets underway as spring nor'easter moves on
Snow showers lingered Friday as the cleanup began following a major spring storm that brought heavy snow, rain and high winds to the Northeast, left hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses without power and contributed to at least two deaths.
Well over a foot of snow was reported in many parts of northern New England by Thursday evening. Some areas got closer to 2 feet.
“We don't have any internet so we're kind of closed off from the world,” said Betty Tidd, 78, of Gilford, New Hampshire. She and her husband lost power early Thursday, but they've been staying comfortable, thanks to their backup battery system and propane stove.
Tidd said they've been keeping busy by bird watching, reading, and playing games, but she hasn't been able to send out the daily poem she's been sharing with family and friends as part of National Poetry Month.
Stowe, Vermont, reported 20 inches of snow, the National Weather Service office in Burlington reported. The agency's office in Gray, Maine, said it had 17.4 inches. The Concord Municipal Airport in New Hampshire was on the lower end, at 7.4 inches.
“It's heavy; it's heavy,” Jay Carr, 49, a photographer, in Marshfield, Vermont, said the shoveling. “I try to shift from left to right so I don't damage one side worse than the other.”
Low pressure meandering through the Gulf of Maine will mean continued snow showers over northern New York, New England, and the spine of the Appalachians in West Virginia into today, the weather service said.
A landslide following thunderstorms at the Wheeling Mt. Zion cemetery in West Virginia toppled trees and gravestones. Volunteers who care for the cemetery said the caskets were not damaged.
Avalanches are possible in parts of the Green Mountains in Vermont and the Adirondacks in New York, the weather service said.
“Outdoor enthusiasts heading into the back country on Friday to snowshoe or ski, need to be aware of the avalanche danger, the risks involved and take the appropriate precautions,” the service said in a statement.
That point was repeated at a Concord, New Hampshire, news conference on preparations for the solar eclipse Monday. A group of towns in the northern part of the state will be in the perfect position to see a total eclipse and they're anticipating many visitors.
They were digging out from the storm, including Colebrook, which is about 10 miles from the Canada border.
In West Virginia, flooding was expected to continue along the Ohio River into the weekend.