East Coast Snow, Wind Cut Power Cold Weather Also Wreaks Havoc

Thousands of customers were without electricity Sunday from North Carolina to Maine after a night of violent weather that included thunderstorms, snow and wind gusting to 81 mph.

“We had lightning while it was snowing,” said George Stein, a spokesman for Potomac Edison Co. in West Virginia.

The stormy weather broke out along a cold front which pushed eastward through the region, followed by some of the arctic air that has dropped temperatures into the single digits and even lower across the Upper Midwest.

Record lows Sunday included 15 at South Bend, Ind.; 19 at Jackson, Ky.; 16 at Cincinnati; and a record-tying 41 at Melbourne, Fla. In the core of the cold-air mass, Ely, Minn., had a Sunday morning low of 18 below zero.

The northern end of the cold front continued producing stormy weather Sunday in northern Maine. The southern end of the front had touched off violent storms Saturday in Florida.

The electrical outages, which peaked Sunday afternoon at about 350,000 customers, were caused by fallen trees and utility poles.

Wind gusted to 81 mph at Cambridge, Vt., and Boston; 76 mph at Bath, Maine; 70 mph on Massachusetts’ Cape Cod; and 65 mph at Ocean City, Md. Wind up to 60 mph in southern West Virginia ripped the roof off a mobile home, and a woman inside suffered a broken leg.

Flooding closed some roads in parts of Maine and New Hampshire. Flood warnings were posted Sunday for portions of New Hampshire, Maine and New Jersey.

In Florida, about 6,000 people attending a religious service at the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center ran for shelter in the basement Saturday when high wind tore a 50-foot hole in the roof.