Nor'easter Lashes US Northeast, Cutting Power and Cancelling Hundreds of Flights
A nor'easter battering the US East Coast has left tens of thousands without power, flooded New Jersey communities and forced hundreds of flight cancellations.
A powerful nor'easter sweeping the US East Coast from Washington, D.C. to Maine has disrupted travel and cut electricity to tens of thousands of homes and businesses, with conditions expected to persist into the start of the week.
At its peak on Saturday, more than 119,000 customers were without power. By 6:07 p.m. ET, that figure had fallen to just over 68,000 across New Jersey, Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania, according to the outage tracker PowerOutage.com. New York accounted for more than 31,000 of those customers, while Connecticut and New Jersey each reported over 12,000.
On Long Island, PSEG Long Island said severe weather was affecting 13,212 electric customers across Long Island and the Rockaways as of 5 p.m. ET, with trees, branches and wires brought down. The utility said it had already restored power to more than 45,100 customers hit by the storm since Friday morning. In New York state, Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation reported crews working to restore service to more than 19,000 homes and businesses as of 4 p.m. ET, with Ulster County among the hardest-hit areas, and warned that restoration work would continue into Sunday.
Flooding was reported across New Jersey, from Bergen County in the north to Cape May County at the southern tip, with voluntary evacuations in some Jersey Shore communities. MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford announced that a Friday concert by rock band AC/DC had been postponed to October 2.
Air travel was also affected. FlightAware reported that 439 flights involving US airports had been cancelled and 2,459 delayed as of 6:13 p.m. ET.
The National Weather Service said the nor'easter would continue to bring coastal flooding, rip currents, strong wind gusts and heavy rain to the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions through Monday.
Ahead of the worst conditions, the governors of New York and New Jersey declared states of emergency on Friday in counties expected to be most affected, including New York City. Connecticut's governor activated the state's Emergency Operations Center.