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US Northeast still facing flooding, outages after killer storm

Reuters
Princeton, NJ, USAUpdated: Mar 03, 2018, 05:37 PM IST
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A student walks out of school during the storm in Newtown, Pennsylvania, US. Photograph:(Reuters)

Nearly 2 million customers remained without power along the eastern US seaboard on Saturday as residents braced for more flooding in the wake of a powerful storm that killed at least seven people.

The snow and rain ended by Saturday morning but forecasters said the remnants of the storm, known as a nor'easter, would continue to lash the northeastern United States with wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour (80 kph) even as it moved hundreds of miles out to sea.

The high winds were expected to hamper efforts to restore power.

The National Weather Service warned that the next high tide around noon EST (1700 GMT) would bring renewed flooding, with a surge of up to 3 feet (0.9 m) and waves of up to 25 feet, and a warning was in effect for virtually the entire New England coastline.

Bob Thompson, the meteorologist-in-charge at the agency's Taunton, Massachusetts-based office, said the latest high tide cycle would likely be the last to bring serious flooding.

After several hours of suspended service due to power outages, trains between New York and Washington along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor resumed at 11 a.m. EST, the passenger railroad said in a statement, although it warned that riders should still expect delays.

The storm brought hurricane-force winds to Boston and nearby shore communities on Friday, sending seawater churning into the streets - the second time the area has been flooded this year.

Gusts of more than 90 mph downed trees and power lines across the region. Falling trees killed seven people, including two boys who died when trees struck their homes, in Connecticut, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia, according to local media and police.

Private forecasting service AccuWeather said the storm dumped as much as 18 inches (46 cm) of snow on parts of New York state and Pennsylvania. The Massachusetts town of East Bridgewater received nearly 6 inches of rain, the NWS said.

The storm also snarled transportation from the Middle Atlantic into New England, with more than a quarter of flights into and out of New York's three major airports and Boston's airport canceled on Friday, tracking service FlightAware.com reported.

The problems carried over into Saturday, with hundreds of flights canceled into and out of New York and Boston, according to the website.

One flight landing at Washington's Dulles International Airport on Friday experienced turbulence so rough that most passengers became sick and the pilots were on the verge of becoming ill, the Federal Aviation Administration said.