Ice storm cuts power to 1.25 million US homes

An ice storm knocked out power to 1.25 million homes and businesses in the US today and authorities say it could take days for all of them to get service back.

The storm brought freezing rain, sleet and snow throughout last night, and in some areas the miserable mix was continuing today.

The governors of Massachusetts and New Hampshire declared states of emergency this morning. Schools were closed and travel disrupted across the region. New Hampshire’s court system cancelled most hearings and trials for the day.

Fire departments were responding to reports of transformer explosions, wires and utility poles down and trees falling on homes.

Utility crews were so busy dealing with public safety hazards like live power lines that they were not immediately able to begin restoration efforts.

Utilities reported 392,000 homes and businesses without power in New Hampshire.

The outages there far surpassed the infamous ice storm of 1998, when some residents spent more than a week in the dark.

In Hampstead, New Hampshire, Mark Cegelis, 36, said things were hectic at his neighbourhood gas station, which was jammed with people trying to get fuel for home generators.

“It’s kind of lawless out there right now. There’s a lot of people very frustrated, stacking up at the gas stations. It’s pretty ugly.”

The ice storm extended to Pennsylvania, where about 4,700 customers, most of them in the Poconos, lost power, and Connecticut, where some 16,500 customers were without electricity at midday.

In most areas in those states, though, the big storm system left its mark in the form of heavy rain or rain changing to snow.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick said 350,000 customers across the state were without power – and the number had risen by 150,000 homes in just an hour. He said it would be “ambitious” to think power would be restored by Monday.

In eastern New York, particularly around Albany, the state capital, utility companies reported more than 255,000 outages.

In Maine, power companies reported that more than 200,000 customers were in the dark due to outages this morning.

In Vermont, 25,800 customers were without power this morning. Several centimetres of snow, caked with ice, toppled trees onto roads and power lines.