Thousands Left Without Power as Massive Storm Hits Northeast

Scores of truckers were stranded and thousands of people left without power today as the worst storm of the season covered New England and the Northeast with up to 30 inches of snow that one official likened to wet cement.

The snow was only part of the region’s misery. A low-pressure system off Massachusetts’ Cape Cod spawned winds up to 60 m.p.h. that howled across southern New England, knocking down power lines.

“This is our first big one of the season,” said Ron McCue of the Weather Service in Albany, N.Y., which got a foot of snow. “For everyone who was dreaming of a white Christmas, we got it.”

For utility officials, it was a nightmare.

At the peak of the snow and wind, more than 48,000 customers were without electricity in Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

“It’s a real mess,” said Ray Hull of Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. in New York state, where 22,000 customers were affected. “This snow is like wet cement.”

Hull said there were reports in Albany of some poles “being sheared off entirely from the weight of the snow.”

A five-mile stretch of Interstate 91 just north of the Vermont-Massachusetts border was closed for several hours this morning, said Ray Burke, a highway department spokesman. At one time, 60 tractor-trailer trucks were stuck on the highway, he said.