HAMPTON, N.H. - An unceasing winter storm unleashed multiple dangers across the Northeast on Friday, blasting the coast with hurricane-force winds that fanned a New Hampshire hotel fire, flooding parts of Maine, dropping 2 feet of snow on parts of New York, and cutting power to at least 700,000 homes and businesses.
Power failures were so bad in New Hampshire that even the state Emergency Operations Center was operating on a generator.
The highest wind reported was 91 mph in Portsmouth, N.H. -- well above hurricane force of 74 mph. Gusts hit 60 mph or more from New York's Long Island to Massachusetts.
In the coastal town of Hampton, the unoccupied Surf Hotel caught fire, and the howling winds quickly spread the blaze to the rest of the block. Five wood-frame buildings, including an arcade and a restaurant, burned. The cause was unknown.
To the north in Maine, waves crashing ashore at high tide Friday morning turned beachfront streets into rivers in Saco, where storms have claimed several homes over the years.
"Felt like the walls were coming in on the house, and the windows were rattling, and the trees were cracking. It was pretty impressive," said Mark Breton, who rode out the storm in his house a few blocks from the beach.
Public Service of New Hampshire, the state's largest utility, reported that power was cut to at least 237,000 homes and businesses in the state of 1.3 million and said it would take days before everyone's lights flickered back on.
There were more than 220,000 customers without power in New York, mostly in the Hudson Valley north of New York City. There were 130,000 in Maine, 85,000 in Massachusetts, 25,000 in Vermont, and 11,000 in New Jersey.
The weather also snarled traffic. A tractor-trailer jackknifed and 16 commercial vehicles piled up on a mile of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, forcing closure of a 60-mile stretch in the hills of central Pennsylvania. Two injuries were reported.
Heavy snow also closed 30 miles of Interstate 84 in New York state, and state Police Sgt. Stephen Meehan called travel conditions throughout the mid-Hudson Valley "an absolute disaster." Tuxedo, N.Y., reported 26 inches of snow, with more coming down.
In New York City, 17 inches of snow had fallen before dawn and more was expected. A man was killed by a falling snow-laden tree branch in Central Park, one of at least three deaths being blamed on the storm.
Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who had said Thursday that the nation's largest public school district would stay open, changed his mind. It's the second snow day of the month there, but only the fourth in six years.
Eric Warner of Brooklyn had to brave it. He drove a truckload of milk, eggs and cheese from Teaneck, N.J., into Manhattan. The roads were terrible, he said, and even carrying the crates was hard.
"When the snow hits you, it feels like little needles," he said.
The weather forced school closings as far west as Cleveland. In Philadelphia, it could be nearly impossible to get in the state-required 180 days of school before June 15 because of a string of snow days.
Most flights were canceled for the day at the three New York-area airports, and only one runway was open at Philadelphia International Airport, where delays were heavy.
New Jersey Transit canceled all buses in the northern half of the state, including those that take workers to New York. Government offices in New Jersey were opening two hours late.
One day after parts of northeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Maine dealt with upward of 20 inches of snow and areas of northern New England weathered heavy rains that pushed some rivers toward flood levels, more of the same was forecast throughout Friday.
Much of the region, particularly Philadelphia and southern New Jersey, only recently finished cleaning up from a pair of storms a few weeks ago.
Even before snow began falling Thursday, Philadelphia and Atlantic City had experienced their snowiest winters on record. This time, those areas had only light snow by Friday morning, but more was expected to fall through the day.
Across upstate New York and New England, it had been an unusually forgiving winter until this week.
For parts of the region, including western Vermont, snow remains in the forecast through Monday.
In Newark, N.J., Rosa Cabrera waited 20 minutes for a bus that never came, then took off on foot to her job at a factory. Cabrera said her usual 10-minute bus ride was at least a half-hour walk, on a clear day.
"We thought we were used to the winters here," the Ecuador native said in Spanish, "but this is just too much."
