Storms kill 1, knock out power, downs trees on East Coast

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MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Storms that began on Halloween killed at least two people, caused flooding, down trees and power lines and damaged homes from the Deep South to the Northeast on Friday.

More than 500,000 customers — from South Carolina to Maine and in Ohio — were without electricity Friday morning.

In Clinton County, Thursday’s torrential rain was followed by strong winds which led to several reports of trees down and across parts of roadways.

A man who was injured when a tree fell on his van later died, Tennessee officials said Friday. In New York, the body of a driver who was swept away on Thursday was found.

In the New York City suburb of New Rochelle, a 9-year-old girl was injured on Halloween when she was hit by a falling tree. Another person was injured when a tornado touched down in Pennsylvania.

A tornado with winds of 111 to 135 miles per hour tore through Glen Mills, a Delaware County suburb of Philadelphia, the National Weather Service confirmed.

Local officials say that at least two dozen homes were damaged and one person was injured. Investigators are still evaluating whether tornadoes touched down elsewhere in Pennsylvania.

By mid-day Friday about more than 120,000 homes and businesses were without electricity in across Pennsylvania. In western Pennsylvania, storms caused flooding, mudslides and road closures. High winds Friday morning caused a car fire to spread to other vehicles in a hotel parking lot in Harmar Township, leaving six cars damaged, officials said.

Several trees came down in New Jersey, which had more than 13,000 homes and businesses without power.

More than 242,000 customers were without power in New York state after a night of heavy rain and wind gusts of up to 70 mph.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo told Spectrum News on Friday that several hundred people were being evacuated in scattered areas around the state because of high waters.

High flood waters the central New York village of Dolgeville meant police had to use a boat to rescue people from a home. The Buffalo area, meanwhile, was dealing with flash flooding after 4 to 5 inches of rain.

The weather also caused damage, outages and commuter delays across New York’s Long Island.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Conor Lahiff in Burlington, Vermont, said the amount of rainfall in some parts of northeastern New York and northern Vermont was almost double what had been forecast.

“We knew there would be rivers to come up because we had saturated soils,” said Lahiff.

A flood warning remained in effect for much of northern Vermont and officials expected flooding to continue into the evening. Dozens of roads have been closed across the state.

Electric utilities across Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine were busy restoring service to tens of thousands of customers who lost power due to high winds.

In Maine, more than 120,000 customers were without power Friday morning. In Vermont the number was more than 54,000 customers were without power, and in New Hampshire it was about 16,000.

Many schools across Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine delayed or canceled classes on Friday.

The Maine Emergency Management Agency warned that some residents will likely be in the dark into the weekend following winds that topped 70 mph in the coastal town of Castine.

The state’s largest utility, Central Maine Power, is getting help from crews for other utilities, including some in Canada, and is trying to line up even more help, but is struggling because there’s damage all over the region.

The storm comes two weeks after a similar storm two weeks ago left more than 200,000 homes and businesses in the dark in Maine.

In Orono, Maine, the state’s flagship university was again without power after coping with major outages during the October storm. The University of Maine announced on Friday morning that it was closed, and classes were canceled until 5 p.m.

The school was also advising against walking or driving on campus because of powerful wind gusts.

Trees were toppled on Thursday in the western Carolinas and Tennessee, where news outlets reported a handful of injuries when trees hit vehicles.

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Associated Press writers Shawn Marsh in Trenton, New Jersey; David Sharp and Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine; Becky Yonker in Louisville, Kentucky; and Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

The News Journal contributed to this story.

Several trees toppled Thursday in Clinton County

By Wilson Ring

Associated Press

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