Northeast grapples with icy roads as storm blows out to sea

**Winter_Weather_Memphis_24419** Ric and Annalisa Potts walk their dog, Happy, under a fallen tree on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022 in Memphis, Tenn. A major winter storm that already cut electric power to about 350,000 homes and businesses from Texas to the Ohio Valley was set to leave Pennsylvania and New England glazed in ice and smothered in snow.(Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian via AP)

**APTOPIX_Canada_Winter_Weather_Daily_Life_56216** People cross-country ski in the cold weather as an industrial plant is shown in the back ground in Toronto, on Friday, Feb. 4, 2022. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

**Winter_Weather_Maine_27946** Dave Darling grimaces as wind begins to whip the snow back into his face Friday morning, Feb. 4, 2022, as he clears his driveway in Auburn, Maine. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal via AP)

**Winter_Weather_Texas_89701** Cars and trucks cross MoPac Expressway on Steck Avenue carefully as ice continues to cover the bridge on the morning on Friday, Feb. 4, 2022 in Austin, Texas. A major winter storm spread misery from the Deep South where a tornado claimed a life and tree limbs snapped under the weight of heavy ice all the way to the nation’s northeastern trip where snow and ice caused havoc for travelers on Friday.(Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

**Winter_Weather_Texas_48627** Ice covers the roofs of houses in the Goodnight Ranch neighborhood in southeast Austin, Texas, during a winter storm on Friday Feb. 4, 2022. A major winter storm spread misery from the Deep South where a tornado claimed a life and tree limbs snapped under the weight of heavy ice all the way to the nation’s northeastern trip where snow and ice caused havoc for travelers on Friday. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

**Winter_Weather_Memphis_30997** A fallen tree and powerline sits on a car Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022 in Memphis, Tenn. A major winter storm that already cut electric power to about 350,000 homes and businesses from Texas to the Ohio Valley was set to leave Pennsylvania and New England glazed in ice and smothered in snow.(Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian via AP)

**Winter_Weather_Pennsylvania_46798** Ice clings to branches in the snow at Frances Slocum State Park, Wyoming, Pa., Friday, Feb. 4, 2022. (Mark Moran/The Citizens' Voice via AP)

**Winter_Weather_Memphis_53698** A fallen limb rests awkwardly on a power line on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022 in Memphis, Tenn. A major winter storm that already cut electric power to about 350,000 homes and businesses from Texas to the Ohio Valley was set to leave Pennsylvania and New England glazed in ice and smothered in snow.(Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian via AP)

**Winter_Weather_Pennsylvania_31533** Dr. Rick Coslett scrapes a coating of ice of his vehicle in Kingston Township, Pa., Friday, Feb. 4, 2022. (Mark Moran/The Citizens' Voice via AP)

**Winter_Weather_Maine_18532** Mike Bolduc struggles to push a car out of his neighbor's driveway Friday morning, Feb. 4, 2022, in Lewiston, Maine. He was shoveling his driveway when he noticed a woman dropping off his neighbor was stuck in her driveway and walked across the street to first dig around the tires and then give it a push to get her back on her way. "It's what being a good neighbor is all about." Bolduc said as he headed back across the street to finish clearing his driveway. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal via AP)

**Winter_Weather_Vermont_53194** Skiers take to the slopes at the Stowe ski resort in Stowe, Vt., Friday, Feb. 4, 2022. While much of the northern United States was digging out from a winter storm, skiers were thrilled with the added snow. (AP Photo/Wilson Ring)

**Winter_Weather_Vermont_34275** Skiers gather at the Stowe ski resort in Stowe, Vt., Friday, Feb. 4, 2022. While much of the northern United States was digging out from a winter storm, skiers were thrilled with the added snow. (AP Photo/Wilson Ring)

**Winter_Weather_Maine_58209** A woman trudges across the street to a parking lot where she dug out her vehicle that was plowed in with the snow on Shawmut Street, Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, in Lewiston, Maine. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal via AP)

**Winter_Weather_Memphis_01502** People walk past a fallen limb on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022 in Memphis, Tenn. A major winter storm that already cut electric power to about 350,000 homes and businesses from Texas to the Ohio Valley was set to leave Pennsylvania and New England glazed in ice and smothered in snow.(Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian via AP)

**Winter_Weather_Georgia_49674** Fallen tree branches cover a yard and vehicles on Friday, Feb. 4, 2022 in Atlanta. A major winter storm that already cut electric power to about 350,000 homes and businesses from Texas to the Ohio Valley is now causing misery in the Northeast. (John Spink /Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

**Winter_Weather_21821** Crews from the New Hampshire Department of Transportation remove debris from a fallen tree on Route 9, in Chesterfield, N.H., after an early morning ice storm covered the area on Friday, Feb. 4, 2022. A major winter storm that already cut electric power to about 350,000 homes and businesses from Texas to the Ohio Valley was set to leave Pennsylvania and New England glazed in ice and smothered in snow. (Kristopher Radder /The Brattleboro Reformer via AP)

**Winter_Weather_Oklahoma_49406** The sun rises over Tulsa, Okla., Friday, Feb. 4, 2022. A major winter storm that already cut electric power to about 350,000 homes and businesses from Texas to the Ohio Valley was set to leave Pennsylvania and New England glazed in ice and smothered in snow. (Mike Simons/Tulsa World via AP)

**Winter_Weather_Texas_26043** A driver in a pickup, right front, momentarily loses control as they and others navigate icy road conditions along U.S. 75 in Dallas, Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

**APTOPIX_Winter_Weather_Texas_81424** Boats are covered with ice and snow at White Rock Lake, Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, in Dallas. More than 200,000 homes and businesses lost power across the U.S. on Thursday as freezing rain and snow weighed down tree limbs and encrusted power lines, part of a winter storm that caused an apparent tornado in Alabama, dumped more than a foot of snow in parts of the Midwest and brought rare measurable snowfall to parts of Texas.(AP Photo/Brandon Wade)

**Winter_Weather_Oklahoma_45906** Isabella Leeker and Madison Jones play with Junior as they walk down Trenton Ave in Tulsa, Okla., on Thursday, Feb.3, 2022. (Stephen Pingry /Tulsa World via AP)

**Winter_Weather_20607** Jacquayla Fields and her mother Tiffany Thomas stand beneath the damaged front porch of a house belonging to Thomas' uncle after a tornado struck Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, along Highway 14 in the Sawyerville Community in rural Hale County, Ala.. No one in the house was injured. (Gary Cosby Jr.,/The Tuscaloosa News via AP)

**Winter_Weather_21783** A tornado struck Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, along Hale County Highway 14 in the Sawyerville Community in rural Hale County, Alabama. A severely damaged house is seen through a gap in fallen trees. (Gary Cosby Jr./The Tuscaloosa News via AP)

**Winter_Weather_29928** A tornado struck Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, along Hale County Highway 14 in the Sawyerville Community in rural Hale County, Ala.. An unidentified woman looks at the damage to a home where a large tree was blown onto the roof. (Gary Cosby Jr./The Tuscaloosa News via AP)

**Winter_Weather_25844** A tornado struck Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, along Hale County Highway 14 in the Sawyerville Community in rural Hale County, Alabama. Two pick up trucks were apparently blown across Highway 14 and thrown into a pond by the tornadic winds. (Gary Cosby Jr./The Tuscaloosa News via AP)

**Winter_Weather_Texas_60950** Pedestrians walk along E Lawther Road along the banks of White Rock Lake, Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, in Dallas. More than 200,000 homes and businesses lost power across the U.S. on Thursday as freezing rain and snow weighed down tree limbs and encrusted power lines, part of a winter storm that caused an apparent tornado in Alabama, dumped more than a foot of snow in parts of the Midwest and brought rare measurable snowfall to parts of Texas.(AP Photo/Brandon Wade)

**Winter_Weather_Texas_78067** Ice and snow cover homes near the East side of White Rock Lake, Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, in Dallas. More than 200,000 homes and businesses lost power across the U.S. on Thursday as freezing rain and snow weighed down tree limbs and encrusted power lines, part of a winter storm that caused an apparent tornado in Alabama, dumped more than a foot of snow in parts of the Midwest and brought rare measurable snowfall to parts of Texas.(AP Photo/Brandon Wade)

**Winter_Weather_Texas_00442** Foot prints are left in the snow on E Lawther Road along the banks of White Rock Lake, Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, in Dallas. More than 200,000 homes and businesses lost power across the U.S. on Thursday as freezing rain and snow weighed down tree limbs and encrusted power lines, part of a winter storm that caused an apparent tornado in Alabama, dumped more than a foot of snow in parts of the Midwest and brought rare measurable snowfall to parts of Texas.(AP Photo/Brandon Wade)

**Winter_Weather_Texas_02195** A chain link fence is frozen over from a winter storm that blew in overnight as a group of young boys play soccer in the ice and snow in Richardson, Texas, Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

**Winter_Weather_Texas_47108** Drivers navigate icy road conditions along U.S. 75 in Dallas, Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

**Winter_Weather_Texas_02066** Quynh Tran, Hannah Lee and Jessica Ngyen climb up the hill to sled in the snow Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, in Fort Worth, Texas. More than 200,000 homes and businesses lost power across the U.S. on Thursday as freezing rain and snow weighed down tree limbs and encrusted power lines, part of a winter storm that caused an apparent tornado in Alabama, dumped more than a foot of snow in parts of the Midwest and brought rare measurable snowfall to parts of Texas. (Yffy Yossifor/Star-Telegram via AP)

**Winter_Weather_Ohio_19022** A snow plows work along Route 307 on Thursday afternoon, Feb. 3, 2022, as snow falls in Jefferson, Ohio. (Warren Dillaway/The Star-Beacon via AP)

**Winter_Weather_Ohio_19012** Snowmobilers prepare to get gas at Pilot on Thursday afternoon, Feb. 3, 2021, as snow falls in Austinburg Township, Ohio. (Warren Dillaway/The Star-Beacon via AP)

**Winter_Weather_Oklahoma_40587** Deanna Cooper, red coat, and Jessica Brent, green hat, walks back to their home after sledding at Emerson Elementary in Tulsa, Okla., on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022. (Ian Maule/Tulsa World via AP)

**Winter_Weather_New_York_84973** Snow covers trees along Sweet Fern Road in Irondequoit, N.Y. on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022. A major winter storm with millions of Americans in its path is spreading rain, freezing rain and heavy snow further across the country.(Tina MacIntyre-Yee/Democrat & Chronicle via AP)

**Winter_Weather_New_York_89372** Sea gulls roost on a frozen Irondequoit Bay in Irondequoit, N.Y., on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022. A major winter storm with millions of Americans in its path is spreading rain, freezing rain and heavy snow further across the country.(Tina MacIntyre-Yee/Democrat & Chronicle via AP)

**Winter_Weather_Indiana_61465** Snow accumulates in the Perrin Neighborhood, Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022 in Lafayette, Ind. (Nikos Frazier/Journal & Courier via AP)

**Winter_Weather_Indiana_05651** Runners run on a snow covered Monon Trial, Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, in Indianapolis. A major winter storm with millions of Americans in its path is spreading rain, freezing rain and heavy snow further across the country. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

**APTOPIX_Winter_Weather_29928** A tornado struck Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, along Hale County Highway 14 in the Sawyerville Community in rural Hale County, Ala.. An unidentified woman looks at the damage to a home where a large tree was blown onto the roof. (Gary Cosby Jr./The Tuscaloosa News via AP)

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Northeast residents were urged to stay off the roads with temperatures beginning to drop Friday evening as a major winter storm turned already slippery roads and sidewalks into ice-covered hazards.

The storm spread misery from the Deep South, where tree limbs snapped and a tornado claimed a life, to the nation’s northeastern tip where snow and ice made travel treacherous Friday.

Massachusetts State Police responded to more than 200 crashes with property damage or injuries, including one fatal crash, starting Thursday evening, officials said. New Hampshire State Police reported at least 70 crashes Friday morning.

“This number is most definitely low because reports are still being written and entered,” state police in Massachusetts tweeted.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warned residents as the snow blows out to sea late Friday and Saturday to stay home if possible to avoid ice-coated roadways and the threat of falling tree limbs in the Hudson Valley and Capital regions.

“We’re not out of the danger zone yet,” Hochul said. “The weather is wildly unpredictable.”

More than a foot (30 centimeters) of snow fell in parts of Pennsylvania, New York and New England. Utility crews were making progress in an area stretching from Texas to Ohio after about 350,000 homes and businesses were in the dark at one point.

One of the hardest-hit places was Memphis, where more than 100,000 customers remained without power Friday night in Shelby County alone, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.

Memphis resident Michael LaRosa described cracking and banging as the tree limbs fell, and the dull hum and pop of transformers blowing out in his tree-lined Midtown neighborhood. A fire started at the end of his street, caused by a live wire on Thursday.

“It was pretty surreal for a little while,” LaRosa, a professor at Rhodes College and a book editor, said Friday. “There were people walking in the streets, and I was worried that limbs were going to fall on them. The neighborhood sort of collapsed pretty quickly and pretty spectacularly.”

Crews worked to remove trees and downed power lines from city streets, while those who lost electricity spent a cold night at home, or sought refuge at hotels or homes of friends and family. Utility officials said it could take days for power to be restored.

It’s also going to take days to clear 225 downed trees on city streets, and crews were working 16-hour shifts to get it done, Robert Knecht, Memphis’ public works director, said Thursday night.

In Oklahoma, police in the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow said they were investigating a hit-and-run crash that killed a 12-year-old boy who was struck while sledding.

Tragedy also struck western Alabama, where a tornado on Thursday killed one person and critically injured three others, Hale County Emergency Management Director Russell Weeden told local news outlets.

The storm represented a “highly energized system” with waves of low pressure riding along like a train from Texas, where there was snowfall and subfreezing temperatures, to Maine and the Canadian Maritimes, said Hunter Tubbs, meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Maine.

Airlines scrubbed about 3,400 flights by midday Friday, with the highest numbers of cancellations at Dallas-Fort Worth and airports in the New York City area and Boston, according to tracking service FlightAware.

Slippery roads caused scores of vehicles to slide off roads, even before anticipated deteriorating conditions during the evening rush hour.

In Tennessee, a man was killed when his truck crashed into a tree that had fallen on a highway, causing the vehicle to spin into a ditch Thursday night in Haywood County, the highway patrol said.

In the Pittsburgh area, commuter rail service was halted when a power line went down, trapping cars at a Port Authority of Allegheny County rail yard.

In New York’s Hudson Valley, the Catskill Animal Sanctuary was relying on generators for power Friday after the overnight ice storm.

“We had trees down all over the property and trees down on our road,” said Kathy Stevens, founder of the refuge for rescued farm animals.

But the roughly 250 animals in Saugerties were OK, she said. Large animals took shelter in barns and smaller animals were taken to offices, the infirmary and other places to keep safe from falling trees.

In Texas, the return of subfreezing weather brought heightened anxiety nearly a year after February 2021’s catastrophic freeze that buckled the state’s power grid for days, leading to hundreds of deaths in one of the worst blackouts in U.S. history.

But Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday’s power outages were due to high winds or downed power lines, not grid failures. About 13,000 homes and businesses in Texas remained without power Friday afternoon.

In New England, some places welcomed the winter weather, which was a boon for skiers and snowmobilers.

In Vermont, no one was complaining at the Stowe Mountain Resort where skiers and snowboarders reported some of the best conditions of the season, with more than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of snow overnight, and snow continuing to fall.

“We’re just having a blast, the sauce is flowing,” said Jared Marshall, of Denmark, Maine, a member of the ski team of New Hampshire’s Colby Sawyer College in town for a ski meet.

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Sharp reported from Portland, Maine; Foody reported from Chicago; and Bleed reported from Little Rock, Arkansas. Associated Press writers Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Wilson Ring in Stowe, Vermont; Marina Villeneuve and Michael Hill in Albany, New York; Ken Miller in Oklahoma City; Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas; David Koenig, Jake Bleiberg and Terry Wallace in Dallas; Paul Davenport in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Seth Borenstein in Kensington, Maryland; Rick Callahan in Indianapolis and Jay Reeves in Alabaster, Alabama, contributed to this report.