BOSTON (Reuters) – Devastation from a rare and deadly October snowstorm lingered in the US Northeast where 1.6 million homes were still without power yesterday, schools were closed and downed trees and powerlines snarled traffic. The storm that raged from West Virginia to Maine from Saturday until late Sunday was blamed for at least 13 deaths, most on slippery roads.
Halloween fun was postponed. Ghoul and goblin decorations were blanketed with record snowfall for October in many places, such as 32 inches (81 cm) measured in the western Massachusetts town of Peru, according to the National Weather Service.
Theo Brinkerhoff, 4, who planned to dress as a ghost yesterday but was forced to wear a heavy sweater and snow boots under his costume to keep warm, refused to believe it was the bewitching autumn holiday.
“It’s not Halloween, because it’s still winter,” he said while visiting grandparents in Amherst, Massachusetts, a town still mostly in the dark.
