A deadly winter storm that drove parts of the United States into a deep freeze over the weekend kept a tight grip on the nation on Monday as bitter temperatures, snow and ice spread across the East Coast, snarling traffic and knocking out power to thousands.
As much as 5 inches of snow were forecast for Monday night into Tuesday for an area stretching from Virginia into New York, the National Weather Service said.
The effects were less severe in Maine. Snow and rain began to fall over western counties around 8 a.m., according to the weather service.
A winter weather advisory was in effect for much of the state, with Aroostook, Piscataquis and northern Somerset counties expected to see the most snow.
Patten in northern Penobscot County had received 2 inches of snow as of mid-afternoon, while Bridgton in Cumberland County had received 1.3 inches as of 1:30 p.m., according to the weather service.
Snow that fell throughout the day was expected to transition to freezing rain over the course of the evening. Snow was falling over southern and western portions of the state at 4 p.m. but precipitation had stopped in eastern and northern counties.
Icy road conditions prompted the Maine Department of Transportation to reduce the speed on Interstate 95 in Hampden to 45 mph about 5 p.m. during the busy evening commute.
Flights out of Bangor International Airport and the Portland International Jetport ran fairly smoothly throughout the day.
Only one BIA departure, an 11:24 a.m. U.S. Airways flight to Philadelphia, was canceled. Two late-afternoon departures to Philadelphia were delayed, with those flights scheduled to take off at 5 and 8:10 p.m., respectively.
Portland reported a handful of delays and one cancellation, a 5:30 p.m. departure to Newark, N.J., by United Airlines.
The Maine Turnpike Authority announced speeds on the highway were reduced to 45 mph from Kittery to New Gloucester.
Meanwhile, dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills were forecast to persist in the western half of the United States, the weather service said, with temperatures about 10 to 30 degrees below average from the Rockies to the Great Lakes and lower Mississippi Valley.
“I don’t think things are going to warm up anytime soon,” said Bruce Sullivan, National Weather Service meteorologist.
Thousands of homes and businesses were without power on Monday morning and thousands of flights were delayed as snow and ice covered roads, highways and airport runways from Texas and Oklahoma east to Virginia and north through Pennsylvania.
Northern Maryland, central and eastern Pennsylvania and parts of New York state received up to 10 inches of snow through Monday morning. Sleet and freezing rain also pummeled the area, according to the National Weather Service.
The mercury in Daniel, Wyoming, fell to 29 below zero on Monday, marking the coldest temperature in the contiguous United States.
A spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Department of Health said it had tallied 247 storm-related injuries. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol has reported 201 collisions that did not cause injuries and 65 collisions that resulted in injuries.
On one stretch of highway near Philadelphia, more than 50 cars and trucks were caught in chain-reaction crashes on the Pennsylvania Turnpike on Sunday afternoon. One man was killed when he left his vehicle after the crashes, a turnpike spokesman said.
AAA Mid-Atlantic, the auto group, said it pulled 109 vehicles out of snow and ice in Pennsylvania on Sunday, compared with three the week before.
At least three people were killed in weather-related car accidents in Arkansas and Tennessee as well, authorities said.
Virginia officials warned drivers of hazardous travel conditions, said Laura Southard, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Emergency Management.
The winter storm claimed at least two lives in Oklahoma, including a 5-year-old boy who died after a van he was riding in flipped on an iced-over bridge on Dec. 5, authorities said. A homeless man in Oklahoma City also died, succumbing to the cold beneath an overpass also on Dec. 5, according to police.
More than 1,600 flights were canceled nationwide on Monday, according to tracking website Flightaware.com, with “excessive delays” reported at Boston’s Logan International Airport, Chicago’s O’Hare International, and Philadelphia International airport, among others.
About 650 travelers were stranded overnight in the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport overnight Sunday, officials said. Still, that was an improvement from the more than 2,000 people who were forced to sleep on cots and chairs Saturday night and 4,000 people stranded in the airport on Friday night.
Dallas/Fort Worth airport had four runways fully operational early Monday, allowing some 500 flights to be scheduled for departure. About 350 flights remained canceled in Monday, airport officials said.
Some 267,000 customers in Texas lost power at the height of the storm, according to utility Oncor. About 21,000 homes and businesses remained without power statewide on Monday, Oncor said.
In southeastern Oklahoma, about 4,000 homes and businesses were without power on Monday, according to Oklahoma Corporation Commission spokesperson Matt Skinner, who said service would likely be restored by Thursday or Friday.
State health officials said 200 people suffered injuries related to the storm.
Oklahoma Gov.Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency, citing “prolonged sub-freezing temperatures, dangerous road conditions and power outages.”
Reuters writer Carey Gillam and BDN writers Dawn Gagnon and Ryan McLaughlin contributed to this report.