Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Northeast residents are cleaning up Sunday after a rare, strong storm blanketed the region with snow and rain, left more than 2 million without power and killed at least three people.
The October Nor'easter dumped record amounts of snow from New Jersey through New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. The governors of New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts all declared states of emergency.
Meteorologist Bruce Sullivan from the National Weather Service said the weather system will be moving up the coast Sunday.
"It is expected to accelerate northeast fairly rapidly today towards Nova Scotia and Canada," he said on Sunday.
Sullivan said the last part of the storm will be hitting the East Coast with heavy snowfall and wind gusts of up to 55 miles per hour predicted.
"We still have to deal with a little bit of snow on the back side of this system this morning. Most of the effects will be felt in parts of eastern Maine," Sullivan said. "But the storm has actually created quite a bit of snow from Virginia, all the way up into the Northeast, with some snow totals as high as 2 feet across western Massachusetts."
An 84-year-old man in Pennsylvania died Saturday afternoon when a tree weighed down by snow fell on his home.
Pennsylvania State Police Corporal Douglas Benedetti said 84-year-old Charles Loder was napping on his recliner when the tree smashed through his house, killing him instantly.
"One of his daughters heard a tree fall in the back of the residence, that's where he resides, and she discovered him trapped in there," Benedetti said.
In Colchester, Conn., one person died in a traffic accident blamed on the snow, Gov. Dannel Malloy said.
A 20-year-old man in Springfield, Mass., was electrocuted by a downed power line he stepped on after getting out of his car.
Parts of the Berkshires in western Massachusetts had more than 2 feet of snow by Saturday evening, with total accumulation expected to pile up more than 30 inches.
Newark-Liberty Airport had 3.8 inches, surpassing the previous high total for an October day of 0.3 inches on Oct. 20, 1952.
While coastal areas were soaked with frigid mixes of rain and snow, inland areas saw snow pile up as though it were midwinter.
By early Saturday evening, West Milford, N.J., saw 15.5 inches; Bristol, Conn., had 11 inches; and Plainfield, Mass., had 14.3 inches.
Parts of West Virginia also reported as much as three or four inches of snow accumulation.
"Kind of unbelievable that we've already gotten snow this year," Berkley, W.Va., resident Tyler Easterday said.
A state of emergency was declared in New Jersey, where Gov. Chris Christie said the heavy snow left approximately 600,000 homes and businesses without power.
"We expect the number is going to continue to go up before it goes back down," Christie said. "The problem is that there are trees just down everywhere because of the snow, the wet, heavy snow."
Approximately 125,000 customers were without power in Pennsylvania Saturday evening, according to First Energy spokesman Scott Surgeoner.
"We have about 6 to 8 inches where I live right now and it's the first time I can remember an October snow storm," he said. "Normally when you do get into winter, the leaves have left the trees or they're shed by the trees, that's not the case this time and that's what's causing most of our problems, if not all our problems."
There were more than 265,000 customers without power in New York State, more than 530,000 without power in Connecticut, more than 367,000 in the dark in Pennsylvania, more than 226,000 in Massachusetts and 61,000 in New Hampshire.
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