Powerful winds whipped across the Midwest and the Northeast over the weekend, killing at least two people and injuring nine others as trees and power lines succumbed to the gusts.
A tree that fell on a small car in Abington, Massachusetts, killed two people who became "heavily entrapped" in the car, Abington Fire Chief John Nuttall said. The victims, who haven't been identified, were transported to a hospital but didn't survive, he said. Winds gusts reached 60 mph in the area Sunday, according to New England Cable News.
The wild weather left about 370,000 utility customers from Wisconsin to Maine without power Sunday morning, officials said.
The most significant power failures were in Pennsylvania, where about 82,000 customers were in the dark.
At least nine injuries had been reported in the Midwest and the Northeast on account of the wind, although officials classified them all as non-life-threatening.
A Chipotle restaurant sign fell during winds gusts and crushed a car below on the north side of Indianapolis. Bystander Peter Courtney said the person in the car was gashed in the head but had reached down for something when the sign toppled.
"If he wasn't doing that — that's what saved him," Courtney told NBC station WTHR of Indianapolis.
Another car in College Park, Maryland, was crushed by a tree, and two people inside were injured, according to the College Park Fire Department. The roof of a home in nearby Bethesda was crushed when a poplar fell on it and collapsed on a man underneath, his wife, Beth Sinclair, told NBC Washington.
"We were both awakened when stuff started falling," she said. "He was actually unconscious and stuck."
After she managed to dig him out, neighbors rushed him to the hospital, the station reported, adding that he's expected to recover.
Four more people were hurt in Newark, New Jersey, when a tree fell on a house, said Capt. Derek Glenn, a Newark police spokesman. The victims, including a 6-year-old girl, all had non-life-threatening injuries, he said.
Another tree that fell on a home left two people injured in Hartford, Connecticut, according to The Weather Channel.
An empty home in Queens, New York, toppled because of the wind, according to police, while the scaffolding on a Brooklyn building under construction was collapsed by the wind, according to The Associated Press. The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island were closed because of the wind, as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged residents across the state to stay inside if possible.
And in Washington, D.C., several Cherry Blossom Festival-related events were canceled because of the high winds, according to event organizers.
Paired with the wind in New England was a bout of snow, which could create whiteout conditions on the roads, said Michael Palmer, lead meteorologist for The Weather Channel.
In Massachusetts, powerful winds toppled trees across the state Sunday, according to NBC station WHDH of Boston, while NBC Connecticut was reporting wind gusts of more than 50 mph.
Late Sunday, winter storm warnings and advisories were issued from Michigan to New England, where some areas could see snow accumulations of as much as 8 inches, according to The Weather Channel. Once the snow wraps up, the Northeast may be in for a deep freeze: Below-average cold is expected to persist through the end of the week, Palmer said.
