News Updates
Updates posted throughout the day.

Utility officials fear more outages

By Larry Grard December 14, 2008 10:07 AM

ROCHESTER, N.H. (AP) - Utility officials trying to recover from the devastating ice storm in the Northeast warned there could be more outages Sunday as drooping branches shed ice and snap back to their original positions, potentially taking out more power lines.

Roughly 800,000 customers were still without power in upstate New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine late Saturday. Utilities in hardest-hit New Hampshire said power might not be totally restored to the region until Thursday or Friday, a week after the storm knocked down utility lines, poles and equipment and blacked out 1.4 homes and businesses.

President Bush declared a state of emergency in the Granite State and in nine of Massachusetts' 14 counties late Saturday, directing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide relief assistance.

Temperatures early Sunday were largely in the teens and 20s, with single-digit readings in much of Maine. The low at Concord, N.H., was just 9 degrees, the National Weather Service said.