Northeast power outages continue

Temperatures fell over the ice-coated Northeast on Saturday, where storm-related power failures had already plunged more than a million homes and businesses from Pennsylvania to Maine into the dark and cold.

“If you don’t have power, assume that you will not get it restored today, and right now make arrangements to stay someplace warm tonight,” warned Gov. John Lynch of hardest-hit New Hampshire.

State utilities said that power probably wouldn’t be restored until Thursday or Friday, partly because of the sheer number of outages and partly because of the devastation.

“What is facing us is the apparent need to rebuild the entire infrastructure of some sections of the electrical delivery system,” said Martin Murray, spokesman for Public Service of New Hampshire.

The extent of damage across the region was unclear because some roads remained impassable. Temperatures were expected to drop into the teens overnight.

In New York, “things are much better,” said Carol Breen of the state Department of Transportation. “But there are still trees coming down because of ice on branches; they’re heavy and they can break at any point.”

About 1.4 million homes and businesses lost power after a storm coated trees and wires with ice Thursday night into Friday. Most of the outages were in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and New York. An estimated 800,000 remained without power Saturday evening.

Utility crews were on the way from as far away as Michigan, Virginia and Canada.

At least four deaths appeared to be storm-related. A Danville, N.H., man died of carbon monoxide poisoning, as did a couple in Glenville, N.Y., authorities said. And the body of a Massachusetts public works supervisor was recovered from a reservoir Saturday, a day after he went missing while responding to tree limbs downed by the ice storm.

New Hampshire and Massachusetts declared states of emergency and called up the National Guard. New York declared a disaster emergency; Maine declared a limited emergency.

As utility crews worked in the hand-numbing cold, residents bundled up and huddled around fireplaces, stayed with friends or relatives, stood in line at stores for generators or went to shelters.

“I still don’t have power. I can’t shower, I can’t cook, I can’t do much of anything,” Debbie Reed, 57, of Rochester, N.H., said Saturday. She went to the Rochester Middle School shelter Friday when her apartment became so cold that she could see her breath.

“My plan is to go home and see how long I can stand it. If the power isn’t back on by tonight, I’ll come back here,” Reed said. “It’s so cold I can only stand it for so long.”