Boston (ANTARA News) - A rare October snowstorm barreled up the U.S. East Coast on Saturday, cutting power to more than two million households, forcing cancellation of scores of airline flights and causing at least three deaths.

New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts declared weather emergencies because of the storm.

"We are expecting the snow to continue to fall from New York City through Maine. By tomorrow morning it should be pretty much wrapped up across most areas," said AccuWeather.com senior meteorologist Alan Reppert.

Slippery conditions on a roadway caused the crash and death of a man driving in Colchester, Connecticut, said Scott Devico, a spokesman for the Connecticut Department of Emergency Management.

In Temple, Pennsylvania, an 84-year-old man was killed when a snow-caked tree fell through his home, said a Muhlenberg Township Police Department dispatcher.

And a 20-year-old man was electrocuted in Springfield, Massachusetts when he stepped out of his vehicle and touched an electrified guard rail, a Springfield police spokesman said.

Snow was falling from central Pennsylvania well into Massachusetts after blanketing parts of Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland earlier in the day, AccuWeather.com said.

While October snow is not unprecedented, this storm could be record-setting in terms of snow totals.

The unseasonably early storm broke a snow record that had stood since 1925 for New York`s Central Park, AccuWeather.com said. New York City was expected to end up with three to six inches (7.5-15 cm) of snow before the storm tapers off on Saturday night, Reppert said.

Snow also fell in the U.S. capital, Washington.

Reuters

Editor: Jafar M Sidik
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