Storm Athena hits NY, NJ after Sandy; leaves thousands powerless

New York: A severe northeaster storm caused heavy snowfall across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut today, leaving over 160,000 residents without power and hundreds of flights cancelled, disrupting life in the region which is still recovering from hurricane Sandy’s devastation. The new storm, known as Athena, buffeted the northeast with rain, snow, coastal flooding and high winds with gusts up to 50 miles per hour. The severe northeaster storm caused 7-13 inches of snow across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut by this morning. [caption id=“attachment_519881” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] The National Weather Service said the strong coastal storm would lose its grip on the region later today, with lessening storm impacts. According to flight tracking service Flightaware.com, airlines had cancelled 672 flights in the wake of the storm, with New Jersey’s Newark Airport, New York’s LaGuardia and JFK Airport witnessing the most disruptions. The storm hit the region yesterday and dropped 11 inches of snow in Connecticut’s Fairfield County and 13.5 inches in New Haven county. Yesterday also 1710 flights were cancelled, with major cancellations occurring at the three affected airports. New Jersey’s Bergen County and Union County received 7.5 inches of snow while New York’s Nassau County woke up to 8 inches of snow and Westchester county to 9.5 inches of snow. The snow raised fears of toppling trees, weakened during Hurricane Sandy, over power lines and homes. The snow storm also left thousands without power just as some residents were beginning to get their electricity back days after Sandy left them in the dark. According to estimates provided by the region’s power utility companies, over 163,000 residents were without electricity and heat in the wake of the northeaster. New Jersey utility company Public Service Electric and Gas (PSE&G) reported Athena affected service to more than 90,000 customers since about noontime yesterday. Power had been restored to about 50,000 customers as of this morning. About 70,000 households continue to remain without power due to Hurricane Sandy. PSE&G said it expects to continue to restore customers still impacted by Hurricane Sandy as well as respond to outages caused by last night’s storm. PTI