MANCHESTER — The nor’easter dumping wet, heavy snow across New England has postponed Tuesday’s scheduled Manchester Selectboard meeting, Interim Town Manager Leslie Perra said.
A new date and time for meeting had yet to be set as of early Tuesday afternoon. Selectboard Chair Ivan C. Beattie said he could not recall the last time weather postponed one of the board’s meetings.
The meeting agenda includes appointing new Town Manager Scott Murphy and approving his contract, as well as reorganizing the board after last week’s Town Meeting elections and presenting the Unsung Hero Award.
Murphy has signed his end of his employment contract. It has been anticipated that Monday will be his first day on the job.
Meanwhile, the number of power outages reported by Green Mountain Power on Tuesday afternoon was down somewhat from higher numbers earlier in the day.
As of 3 p.m., the utility reported 29,576 customers without power because of 1,162 active incidents across 122 Vermont cities and towns.
As of 3 p.m., there were 567 customers without power on Manchester, according to the utility’s website. GMP said there were 636 customers without power in Londonderry, 434 in Arlington, 301 in Sunderland and 298 in Dorset.
Forecasters expected 6 to 10 inches of snow would accumulate Tuesday on top of what already fell Monday night and early Tuesday morning. The storm was expected to taper off to flurries this morning.
Two roads were reported closed Tuesday morning by Vermont State Police, including Route 7A in Arlington and Route 9 near the chain-up pull off. In both cases, trees were reported down on the roadways.
Manchester Police Lt. James Blanchard said there were power lines down in several parts of town, including West Road, Union Street and Clyde Acres, but no accidents. Most calls for service were for house alarms, which go off when there’s an interruption in power.
“Road crews have been out clearing the roads, however a long-lasting storm like this one will require patience on everyone’s behalf,” Blanchard said in an email. “We urge people to limit any unnecessary travel, and stay home if possible while road crews continue to clear the roads.”
Likewise, Fire Chief Chris Towslee said the Manchester Fire Department had yet to be called into service as of 10:30 a.m.
A number of areas businesses closed for the day, rather than risk employees’ safety commuting to work.
Elsewhere in the region, the heavy, wet snow caused a plane to slide off a taxiway and led to hundreds of school closings, canceled flights and thousands of power outages in parts of the Northeast on Tuesday.
“This is shaping up to be a unique winter storm for our small state in that there will be big differences in snowfall amounts depending on where you are located,” said Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, who ordered all executive branch state office buildings closed. “Some towns may receive a significant snowfall total, while others may receive a fraction of that amount or maybe even just rain.”
A Delta Air Lines plane veered off a paved surface as it taxied for takeoff from a Syracuse, N.Y., airport Tuesday morning. Flight 1718, which was bound for New York City’s LaGuardia Airport, slid into a grassy area north of the runway, forcing passengers off the plane and onto buses back to the terminal, according to airport officials. No one was injured, and the airport remained open.
More than 400 flights traveling to, from or within the U.S. were canceled Tuesday, with Boston and New York City area airports seeing the highest number of scrubbed flights, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
Wet, heavy snow snapped tree branches and downed power lines across New York’s capital region with power outages hitting homes and businesses in the Albany area. Snow was falling especially heavy in New York’s Catskills, where about 20 inches had piled up in some areas — and more to come, according to the National Weather Service in Albany.
The snowfall totals will be among the highest of the season, said meteorologist Andrew Orrison of the weather service office in College Park, Maryland.
“It has been below average for snowfall across the Northeast this year, and so this nor’easter will be very impactful,” he said.
While higher elevations get snow, authorities warned residents in coastal areas to watch for possible flooding because of heavy rains. The National Weather Service in New York said wind gusts could reach 50 mph across Long Island and lower Connecticut.
Rain was turning into snow across parts of New England with winds picking up and power outages reported across the region. In New Hampshire, it was Election Day for town officeholders, but more than 70 communities postponed voting because of the storm.
One community that did not postpone voting was Londonderry, a town of about 24,000 people in the southern part of the state, where steady snow was falling. The polls had opened at 6 a.m. and were scheduled to close at 8 p.m.
Many voters opted to turn in an absentee ballot Monday, in advance of the storm, town Moderator Jonathan Kipp said. Some diehard residents braved the elements.
“Some are like, ‘Hey, this is New England, you know, what do you expect?’ And others are not happy with the decision, but they still came out,” he said.
Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.