WAYLAND, Mass. (AP) - October 31, 2011
Families huddled under blankets and winter coats at home or
waited out the crisis in shelters as utility crews struggled to fix
power lines brought down by the storm. Hundreds of schools closed,
giving youngsters one of the earliest snow days on record.
"Such a small storm but such a big disaster," said Marina
Shen, who spent Sunday night with her husband and dog at a middle
school in Wayland, a Boston suburb of 13,000 where half the homes
lost power. Just a few inches fell in Wayland, and most of it had
melted by Monday, but overnight temperatures fell below freezing.
"The house is really, really cold. You cannot do anything. It's
so dark, cold," Shen said. "Here they give us a hot shower."
From Maryland to Maine, high winds and wet, heavy snow brought
down trees, branches and wires Saturday and Sunday. Snowfall
amounts ranged from less than inch in some places to 32 inches in
the small town of Peru, Mass., in the Berkshire Mountains.
The storm was blamed for at least 12 deaths, mostly caused by
falling trees, traffic accidents or electrocutions from downed
wires. Six people died in Pennsylvania alone.
More than 3 million homes and businesses in the Northeast lost
power at the height of the storm. By midday Monday, that number was
still above 2 million.
Some of the same areas were hit hard by the rainy remnants of
Hurricane Irene just two months ago, but in many places the utility
damage was worse this time. The trees had yet to lose their leaves
and captured all too much of the snow.
"The leaves on the trees have made whole trees and huge
branches come down and taken down more wires," said New Jersey
Gov. Chris Christie. "It's a huge challenge for everybody."
With the temperature rising again, the storm's effects will
probably outlast the snow itself.
Christie said he expected 95 percent of the 375,000 customers in
New Jersey without power to have it back by Thursday, though he
knew that would be little comfort to people shivering in the dark.
"I know if you are without power today, Thursday seems like a
long time from now," he said.
Companies brought in crews from other states to help, but with
lights out and live wires down all over the place, many communities
urged children to skip trick-or-treating or at least postpone it
until later in the week.
"I was upset because I really wanted to go trick-and-treating
and get candy," said 12-year-old McKenzie Gallasso of South
Windsor, Conn., who was deciding whether to be a witch or a
werewolf when the phone rang with the bad news that town officials
were advising families to call off trick-or-treating. "This year
I'll have to eat candy from my mom."
In Berlin, Mass., Glen Mair was trying to find someplace for his
two children to go for Halloween after the town canceled
trick-or-treating. He said they might go to a condominium complex
or a neighboring town.
"This is like a mean practical joke," he said of the storm.
Mercedes Hidalgo of Pompton Lakes, N.J., was disappointed the
street would be too dark Monday night to hand out candy.
"I have all the candy since probably three, four weeks ago that
I bought it, but honestly, what I did - in the dark, with my
flashlight - I was eating chocolate all night to try and warm up,"
she said.
In addition to ruining Halloween, the storm was turning into a
budget nightmare for cities and towns already dealing the costs of
Irene.
"There's no question that most municipal budgets are past
bending and into breaking," said William Steinhaus, the top
elected of official in Dutchess County, in New York's Hudson
Valley, which got nearly 2 feet of snow. "Whether it's fuel money
or overtime money or salt and sand material items, those line items
are all stretched or broke at this point."
Steinhaus also questioned why the New York Department of
Transportation wasn't better prepared for the storm after state
police had to help more than 100 drivers who got stuck on
Interstate 84 and the Taconic State Parkway early Sunday.
Dana Richardson of Malverne, N.Y., and his 82-year-old mother
were stranded on the Taconic for 10 hours after setting out from
their Long Island home Saturday afternoon and heading upstate to
visit relatives in Rhinebeck. He said he saw only one snowplow the
entire time.
Police took them to a firehouse, and they eventually were
brought to a hotel, where they slept on chairs in the lobby.
"The authorities tried their best, but it seems like they were
totally unprepared," said his mother, Dimitra Richardson.
A call to the department was not immediately returned.
Judd Everhart, a spokesman for the Connecticut Department of
Transportation, said the agency spent more than $2 million of its
$26 million snow-removal budget on keeping state roads clear during
the storm.
In some places, commuters were forced to hunt for open gas
stations after power outages knocked out the pumps. At a 7-Eleven
in Hartford, Conn., two dozen cars waited in a line that stretched
into the street and disrupted traffic.
"There's no gas anywhere," said Debra Palmisano of Plainville,
Conn. "It's like we're in a war zone. It's pretty scary,
actually."
In Allentown, Pa., where downed branches littered yards, Anne
Warschauer, a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor, refused to leave her
home.
"I'm freezing," she acknowledged. But she said she worried
about her cat, Pumpkin. A friend urged her to go, saying the power
would not be back on until Thursday.
"I'm not going," Warschauer replied. "So let's not talk about
that any more."
Angie O'Connor of Boston said she found it striking that
temperatures were in the 80s just a few weeks ago.
"I was swimming in the ocean on Oct. 10," she said. "It does
seem awfully early for this."
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Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers
Michael Rubinkam in Allentown, Pa.; Denise Lavoie in Boston;
Michael Melia and Stephen Singer in Hartford, Conn.; Frank Eltman
in Garden City, N.Y.; Chris Carola in Albany; Beth DeFalco in
Trenton, N.J.; and Samantha Henry in Pompton Lakes, N.J.
