Hundreds of thousands of Americans were without power and at least eight were dead Saturday after a Nor'easter thrashed the East Coast with heavy winds, rain and snow on Friday, NBCNews.com reports.
More than a dozen utility companies reported that hundreds of thousands of their customers were affected by the powerful storm.
Approximately 328,000 people were still without power in Massachusetts, according to the state's Emergency Management Agency, after initial reports of 450,000 without electricity. New Jersey power companies said more than 164,000 customers were affected by outages, and Pennsylvania companies PECO, PPL and West Penn Power had more than 384,000 customers experience outages as of 5 p.m. Virginia power companies Dominion Energy and Novec Power said nearly 160,000 were affected by the storm.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said approximately 270,000 New Yorkers were without power on Saturday.
"We are deploying the National Guard and senior officials to ramp up recovery efforts and ensure the thousands of New Yorkers impacted by this storm are getting the help they need," Cuomo said."Some travel restrictions and advisories remain in effect, and I urge drivers to stay off the roads so that the National Guard, first responders and utility workers can assist those that need help."
The heavy winds and downed trees also led to the deaths of eight people in Virginia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, authorities said.