Severe ice storm hits Northeast
Officials say it could take days to restore power to 1.25 million homes, businesses

CONCORD, N.H. – An ice storm to compare with some of the Northeast’s worst made a mess of the region Friday, leaving 1.25 million homes and businesses in seven states without power as it forced schools to close and toppled ice-laden trees and power lines onto slippery roads.
More than half of New Hampshire’s homes and businesses lost power, and it was expected to take several days to completely restore electricity there and in other states. The storm wreaked havoc from Maine to Pennsylvania, leaving a sparkling, ice-covered landscape that was too destructive for many to find beautiful.
“This is pathetic,” said Bob Cott of Portland, Maine, who lost power. “I’m already sick of winter and we have nine days to go before it officially begins.”
At least one death was related to the storm: New Hampshire officials said a 49-year-old Danville man who lived in a camper died of carbon monoxide poisoning after turning on his generator when his power went out Thursday night.
For New Hampshire, the power outages dwarfed those during the 1998 ice storm, when some residents spent more than a week in the dark.
Nearly two dozen shelters were set up across the southern part of the state, and authorities were working to get generators to several nursing homes. About 35 people, mostly elderly, had settled in at a shelter at Portsmouth High School by early afternoon.
Gov. John Lynch urged residents to “please go out of your way” to check on their neighbors, especially those who are elderly and live alone.
Both Lynch and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick declared states of emergency Friday morning and called up members of the National Guard. Five hundred Massachusetts Guard members were cleaning up debris and clearing access to downed power lines. Lynch put 150 on alert and deployed 20.
“This is not going to be a couple of hours,” Patrick said. “It’s likely to be several days.”
The Red Cross, in conjunction with the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, has opened 23 temporary shelters across the state.
New Hampshire homes and businesses without power topped 400,000, a number that represents about 55 percent of all the state’s electricity customers, said Thomas Getz, chairman of the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission.
“This is the absolute, most significant power restoration effort we’ve ever had. There has not been a storm before that has affected more customers,” said Martin Murray, spokesman for the state’s largest utility, Public Service Company of New Hampshire.
The ice storm extended to Pennsylvania, where about 4,700 customers, most of them in the Poconos, lost power, and Connecticut, where some 17,000 customers were without electricity at the height of the storm. Those states mostly got heavy rain or rain changing to snow.