By Victoria Cavaliere
Feb 16 (Reuters) – A winter blast left parts of the U.S.
Northeast buried under a foot of snow on Sunday before heading
toward coastal Canada, the second powerful storm system to slam
the region in less than a week.
Swaths of Maine and Massachusetts were under a flood watch
due to rain coming down on top of the snow, and gusty conditions
threatened to down power lines and tree limbs through early
Monday, according to the National Weather Service.
The storm dropped about 15 inches (38 cm) of wet, compact
snow over Cape Cod, which juts off mainland Massachusetts,
leaving 25,000 customers without power, according to electric
utility NSTAR.
Most of those still without power were expected to have
electricity back by late Sunday, the company said in a statement
on its website.
Boston got about 4 inches (10 cm) of snow, the National
Weather Service said.
Farther north in Maine, a steady rain on top of packed snow
prompted a flood watch in most of the state’s central, southern
and coastal regions. Up to 14 inches (36 cm) of snow
accumulation was recorded early Sunday in other parts of the
state, the Weather Service said.
Another band of snow is expected to hit the Midwest and East
Coast beginning overnight Sunday, according to forecasting
service AccuWeather.
“There will be no rest for the snow-weary from the Midwest
to East Coast as yet another quick-moving system threatens to
lay down a swath of several inches of snow from Minnesota to the
Northeast,” Accuweather meteorologist Dan DePodwin said.
The storm will hit most of the states in those areas on
Monday and Tuesday, forecasters predict.
The latest round of winter weather comes on the heels of a
powerful storm system that pummeled the East Coast from Georgia
to Maine last week, grounding thousands of flights and leaving
hundreds of thousands of people without electricity as ice and
snow downed power lines and tree limbs.
The storm system also snarled traffic and contributed to
hundreds of car accidents.
The heavy snow this winter has depleted U.S. stocks of road
salt. Connecticut, hit so far by 12 storms, requested federal
assistance to help make up its shortfall.
(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst
and Jonathan Oatis)
