Nor’easter leaves thousands without power on East Coast

A nor’easter, sometimes called a bomb cyclone, has begun hitting the East Coast and has already knocked power out for thousands of people. 

More than 100,000 people were without power in Massachusetts as of Saturday morning, according to poweroutage.us. More than 20 inches of snow is predicted for some of the state. 

Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Delaware have all issued states of emergencies due to the storm as more power outages are expected. 

More than 4,000 flights have been canceled as the storm is expected to last into Sunday.

“Out of an abundance of caution I am declaring a State of Emergency today as this storm is poised to create dangerous travel conditions, heavy snowfall rates and sustained winds over 50 mph tonight into Saturday,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said Friday. “My team and I are laser focused on the forecast and we’ve been deploying emergency response assets ahead of the storm to assist with response efforts in the downstate areas.”

High winds combined with the snow are expected to create white out conditions for travel, potentially knock down trees and could create tidal flooding, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) said.

The storm is expected to impact more than 70 million people on the East Coast with blizzard conditions forecasted for four million people.

Many states are expected to see more than eight inches of snow with some seeing up to 24 inches.