Hundreds of thousands still lack power after northeast storm

GILFORD, N.H. —  Snow showers lingered Friday as the cleanup began after 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. Avalanches are possible in parts of the Green Mountains in Vermont and the Adirondacks in New York, the weather service said.

That point was repeated at a Concord, N.H., news conference on preparations for the solar eclipse on 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.

“We did have about a foot of snow dumped out there over the last day and a half,” Town Manager Tim Stevens said at the news conference. “But even with that, we’re still not canceling the eclipse,” he added, to a round of laughter.

In New England, utility crews worked to restore power and assess damage, including downed poles and wires and blocked roads. Nearly 700,000 customers, most of them in Maine and New Hampshire, were without electricity at one point.

By late Friday morning, Central Maine Power said it had restored power to more than 120,000 customers. It had called total restoration a multi-day effort.

The weather service said it was the biggest April nor’easter — a type of storm with winds blowing from the northeast that either exits or moves north along the East Coast — to hit the region since 2020.

A tree fell on a vehicle Wednesday and killed a woman in Armonk in New York’s Westchester County, police said. In Derry, N.H., officials said a woman died and another was hospitalized after a house fire Thursday sparked by an explosion. A tree had fallen on the house near propane tanks.

Despite the dangers, some New Englanders took the weather in stride.

“It’s special to get snow in April and to be able to get out and enjoy it,” said Jane Phillips, cross-country skiing in her neighborhood in Portland, Maine. “It’s fun being a Mainer.”

Associated Press writer Perry reported form Gilford, Rathke from Marshfield, Vt. Also contributing to this report were AP writers Patrick Whittle and Holly Ramer in Boston; Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H.; and Sarah Brumfield in Silver Spring, Md.