Thousands still lack power after Northeast storm

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- More snow fell Wednesday in parts of the Northeast as utility crews labored to restore service to thousands of customers blacked out by the region's first big snowstorm of the season.

The wet snow that began falling Tuesday collected on trees still covered with leaves, and its weight combined with gusty wind to send limbs crashing onto power lines.

The National Weather Service reported storm totals of about 14 inches at northern New Jersey's High Point State Park, as much as 15 inches along the northwestern edge of New York's Catskill Mountains, and a foot in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains.

More wind-blown snow swept through northern Vermont on Wednesday. A lake effect snow warning was in effect for northwestern Pennsylvania, with accumulations of up to 12 inches possible at higher elevations, as wind picked up moisture from Lake Erie. Radar showed new snowfall Wednesday in parts of upstate New York.

More than 40,000 customers remained without power Wednesday in upstate New York, most of them in the Mohawk Valley, Adirondacks and the Catskills, according to utilities National Grid and New York State Electric & Gas.

Crews in New Jersey worked to restore power to more than 41,000 customers, mainly in the northern part of the state. Jersey Central Power and Light said service might not be fully until sometime during the night because fallen trees hampered access to severed power lines.

Snow also fell at higher elevations of the central and southern Appalachians.

School were closed Wednesday in northern West Virginia's mountainous Tucker County, where 6 inches of snow made roads slippery. Two years ago, the county received 6 inches of snow on Oct. 24.

There was even 1 to 3 inches of snow in the mountains of western North Carolina, where one school system closed Wednesday because of slick roads. The earliest recorded snowfall in the Asheville, N.C., area was less than a half inch on Oct. 1, 1952, the weather service said.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)