Widespread power outages reported as feet of snow fall in the Northeast

A major winter storm dumped more than a foot of snow on parts of the Northeast, knocking out power at one point to more than 250,000 customers, and more snow was on the way, forecasters said Tuesday.

No deaths have been reported in the nor’easter that has been hitting New England and other states, but more than 2 feet of snow had been reported in parts of Worcester County, Massachusetts, by 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

“This isn’t over,” Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said. “We have some concerns about what the high winds are going to bring, and more snow to other parts of the state. A lot of power outages in the southern part.”

Around 19 inches of snow was recorded in Rutland County, Vermont, by 5 p.m. Tuesday. Another 6 to 12 inches were possible in that state, as well as in northern New Hampshire and Maine, the weather service said.

There were more than 260,000 customers without power in New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine as of 8 p.m., according to tracking website PowerOutage.us. Utility National Grid said heavy, wet snow and winds caused widespread damage to its systems.

More than 700 flights into or out of the New York City area airports of LaGuardia and Newark and at Boston’s Logan International were canceled Tuesday, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.

In Derry, New Hampshire, where around a foot snow fell, a child was trapped by a falling tree, the fire department said. Firefighters and police officers used chainsaws and their bare hands to free the child, who was taken to a hospital and had minor injuries, the department said.

“Please stay off the roads if possible,” New Hampshire State Police tweeted Tuesday, warning of whiteout conditions. There were more than 120 crashes and vehicles off the road in the seven hours between 5 a.m. and noon, it said.

In California, more than 300,000 homes and businesses without power Tuesday as an “atmospheric river” continued to impact the state, according to PowerOutage.us and the weather service.

More than 800,000 people in the western United States were under flood warnings Tuesday afternoon, according to the weather service.

The rain had mainly ended in San Francisco but forecasters there warned of high winds that would likely topple trees. San Francisco International Airport said strong winds forced a ground stop, which was later lifted.

A window pane was blown off a San Francisco high-rise building, which caused the fire department to tell people to shelter in place due to falling glass, according to the fire department and NBC Bay Area. No injuries were reported.

“The wind was blowing extremely hard, it was tough to even walk, and you really had to kind of lean into it,” San Francisco resident Andrew Bowers told the station. “And then benches started tipping over, and I just heard a loud boom.”

Bowers said people ran when the glass shattered on the street, and took cover beneath an overhang of a building.

In Monterey County, crews worked to finish filling the width of a 400-foot breach in a levee by the Pajaro River, which opened during heavy rains late Friday and flooded the town of town of Pajaro, officials said.

That will slightly reduce the flow out of the river, but work to build up the wall to levee height is expected to take one to two weeks, Monterey County said. A second breach that opened near the river mouth was letting water flow to the ocean and lowering flood levels, it said.

A mudslide caused major damage to a home in Colfax, in Placer County, northeast of Sacramento, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire, said. There were no injuries and everyone is accounted for, it said.

Heavy rain in central and southern parts of California through Tuesday night could cause flooding in areas already vulnerable by recent rainfall, the weather service said.