Nearly two million without power after brutal storm hits northeast- 12 dead

October 31, 2011 – Boston, MA — About 1.8 million people in at least five states remained without power Monday after a rare October snowstorm buried parts of the Northeast under more than 2 feet of snow. Utilities throughout the region reported significant progress in restoring power, but the cold, snowy conditions and house-by-house nature of the damage was slowing the work, officials said. The weekend storm prompted emergency declarations from the governors of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts, and also put Halloween trick-or-treating plans in jeopardy. At least six Massachusetts cities have postponed the annual ritual, Lt. Gov. Tim Murray said. One of them, Worcester, Massachusetts, asked residents to postpone celebrations until Thursday, when temperatures are expected to climb to 60 degrees. Trick-or-treating, the city said, would “put families and our youth in harm’s way as they negotiate piles of snow and downed limbs.” Murray and Connecticut Gov. Daniel Malloy said they were leaving it up to city officials in their states whether to cancel festivities for Monday night. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said some roads in the state are expected to ice up again after dark, and he warned that downed power lines continue to pose a threat of electrocution in the wake of a storm that he said warrants a federal disaster declaration. “It was a particular challenge not just because it comes unseasonably soon, but because there are leaves on many of the trees, which caused a number of limbs to come down on power lines,” he said. Authorities attributed at least eight deaths to the storm. Time-lapse of the snowfall in New Jersey Some of the heaviest snow fell in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, but snowfall amounts of at least a foot were recorded from West Virginia to Maine. The Berkshire County community of Peru, Massachusetts, received 32 inches of snow during the storm. “I never have seen this and I’ve lived here all my life, and that’s more than 90 years,” 92-year-old Genevieve Murphy of Westfield, Massachusetts, said in an interview with CNN affiliate WWLP-TV. –CNN