Power outages remain in New England after record snowfall

Shoveling snow outside of a laundromat in Queens, on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026. The powerful winter storm pummeling a vast swath of the Eastern Seaboard  left a heavy blanket over the region Tuesday, dumping snow at a furious rate and strangling major metropolitan areas at the dawn of the workweek. (José A. Alvarado/The New York Times)

By JACEY FORTIN and ANDY NEWMAN

A blizzard that buried much of the Northeast and New England left a heavy blanket over the region Tuesday, as well as lingering dangers and difficulties — including a quarter million households without power.

Trees and electricity lines throughout the regions were down, and the snowy streets made it difficult for repair crews to move quickly.

Much of eastern Massachusetts was still dark — and cold. According to data compiled by the state’s emergency management agency, nearly 250,000 utility customers did not have power as of Tuesday afternoon. That included a majority of the households on Cape Cod.

Gov. Maura Healey of Massachusetts, who implored people Monday to stay home to allow snowplows to clear the roads and enable line crews to restore power, lifted a formal travel ban at noon Tuesday, but she asked people to remain at home if possible.

“We know that there are still many households without power,” Healey said in a statement Tuesday, “and the utilities are working hard to assess damage and restore power as quickly and safely as possible.”

About 3 feet of snow fell on parts of Rhode Island over Sunday and Monday, including in Providence, the capital, where city plows were knocked out of commission for several hours. In Massachusetts, hundreds of vehicles were stranded on icy roads.

“This appears to be the most historic blizzard we’ve received,” said Josh Estrella, a spokesperson for the city of Providence.

The heaviest snowfall reported by the National Weather Service during the blizzard was at T.F. Green International Airport in Warwick, Rhode Island, where a spotter measured 37.9 inches.

The wet snow and strong winds snapped tree limbs and bedeviled battalions of shovelers. At the storm’s peak, well over half a million homes and businesses in the Northeast were without power, including nearly 300,000 in Massachusetts and about 100,000 in New Jersey, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages.

Boston residents had hunkered down well, Michelle Wu, the city’s mayor, said Monday evening, noting that there were “fewer EMS and fire calls than usual.” But city officials warned that the streets could take a long time to clean up, especially since more snow was expected Wednesday.

In New York City, nearly 20 inches of snow fell in Central Park — the ninth-highest total on record. On Tuesday morning, work crews cleared streets under blue skies, and public schools reopened. Mass transit in the region, which was drastically curtailed during the blizzard, was slowly getting back on track.

Thousands of flights were canceled because of the storm, and the ripple effect will be felt for days. But major U.S. airlines said Tuesday that they would add flights at airports across the Northeast to speed up operations and make up for the cancellations.