Nov 19, 2002 By David Sharp Associated Press Writer 3 min read

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – A nor’easter packing a dangerous mix of snow and freezing rain spread a destructive layer of ice across parts of New England, leaving thousands of people without electricity. Brisk wind on Monday caused more power outages as it snapped ice-weakened trees and electrical lines. Ice-covered pavement and downed trees made travel hazardous. Two highway deaths were blamed on Sunday’s icy conditions in Maine.

Tens of thousands of people in the Northeast were still without power early Monday, including more than 58,000 customers of Connecticut Light & Power.

Some customers may have to wait until Wednesday before power is restored, said Frank Poirot, a spokesman for Connecticut Light & Power. Dozens of Connecticut schools were closed Monday.

A new round of harsh weather on Monday reversed the work Massachusetts utility crews had done during the night in restoring service to all but about 1,400 homes and businesses.

Wind gusted to 40 to 50 mph during the morning, and by noon Monday the utility was back up to 18,000 customers without electricity, nearly as many as at the height of the storm, said Massachusetts Electric spokeswoman Amy Atwood.

Sunday’s storm formed along the coast of the Carolinas and rolled northward along a cold front, producing rain from the Carolinas into southern New England, where colder air turned the rain to snow and ice. An earlier storm had soaked large parts of the East on Saturday.

Connecticut residents reported loud cracking sounds as the heavy ice overcame trees.

“Every 15 seconds there were thunder shots and the trees were snapping in half,” Mark Fleming of Burlington told WVIT-TV. “It was like gunshots going off in the back yard. It was quite amazing.”

“It is kind of pretty, but the devastation with the trees is just terrible,” said Dwayne Aldridge of New Hartford, Conn.

Residents of southern Maine awoke Sunday to the season’s first major snowfall, which later turned into freezing rain. Dozens of cars slid off highways and speed limits were reduced to 45 mph on the Maine Turnpike and Interstate 95.

Most parts of Maine had only 3 to 5 inches of snow by the afternoon, but some higher elevations got 10 inches.

An estimated 4,000 Central Maine Power customers were without electricity Monday morning, down from 15,000 on Sunday.

“The problem we’re having down there is that the outages are widely scattered,” said Gail Rice of Central Maine Power. “There are a lot of small problems scattered about so it tends to be very labor-intensive and slow-going.”

Some 26,000 homes and business were still blacked out Monday in New York state, according to New York State Electric & Gas and Niagara Mohawk Power Corp.

Up to 7 inches of snow fell in the Adirondacks and Catskills, and road conditions hampered some utility repair crews. “It certainly slows things down and makes our job more difficult,” said Clay Ellis of New York State Electric & Gas.

The cold front along the East Coast extended all the way into Florida, where temperatures dipped into the freezing range early Monday in some northern counties.

Frost was reported in the areas of Jacksonville and Tallahassee, said Al Sandrik, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Jacksonville. That isn’t uncommon for this time of year in those areas, he said.