The storm in the late season left hundreds of thousands of people in the northeast without electricity on Tuesday, with the Empire State hit the hardest.
In the last 24 hours, the storm has wreaked havoc in 11 counties in New York, from the south to the north, according to Governor Katie Hochul, who spoke at a briefing at the Broome County Emergency Operations Center.
“I want to admit that this was a very serious event, as I said, which led to a dramatic number of families, homes, businesses, schools, hospitals, at least temporarily displaced and coping with the lack of energy,” Hochul said.
About 350,000 homes were without electricity at the time of the storm, but now 200,000 have been rebuilt, according to Hochul. Officials hope the crews will restore power to everyone over the next three days, she said.
Parts of western New York and Pennsylvania fell more than a meter in snow, according to preliminary general snowfall, including 18 inches in Virgil, New York. Tree limbs across the state fell under the weight of the snow and knocked down power lines, Hochul said. According to the website PowerOutage.US, about 160,000 homes and businesses in New York were still in the dark at 8:30 p.m. There were more than 36,000 interruptions in Pennsylvania. Power to most affected New England customers was restored until Tuesday night, when winds subsided in the region. Earlier, strong winds were highlighted by 67 mph gusts in Tuckerton, New Jersey, and 66 mph gusts in Cape May, New Jersey. New York’s JFK Airport recorded gusts of 47 mph at night, while peak wind speeds ranged from 46 mph to 69 mph in parts of Suffolk County on Long Island, according to the National Weather Service.
The stormy wind warning remains in effect from Long Island north of the New England coast. The Meteorological Service says that during the warning, which is valid until 8 am ET, seas up to 15 feet will be visible in some areas.
“Strong winds will cause dangerous seas that could capsize or damage vessels and reduce visibility,” the meteorological service said.
Nor’easter is a term for a storm on the east coast of the United States, in which strong winds come from the northeast. The arrival of the current storm in mid-April is rare, though unheard of, experts said.
While storms often hit coastal areas, northern Easter this week was far farther west, meaning rainfall in coastal cities arrived as rain, while inland areas received heavy, wet snow.
Before arriving in the northeast, the storm rained heavily over Carolina and the Mid-Atlantic coast.
CNN’s Jennifer Gray contributed to this report.
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