Hundreds of thousands remain without power after deadly storm pounds U.S. Northeast

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of people remained without power in the U.S. Northeast on Wednesday after ferocious storms packing fierce winds and hail battered the region, killing three people.

Commuters wait as service was temporarily suspended on all Metro North lines at Grand Central Terminal due to storms in Manhattan, New York, May 15, 2018. REUTERS/Herbert Lash

Hours after the storms knocked down power lines and trees across the region, some 360,000 customers in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and West Virginia were without power, tracking service PowerOutage.us said.

Schools canceled classes or delayed opening on Wednesday.

Morning commuters in New York and Boston were expected to face patchy dense fog, the National Weather Service warned, while some commuter trains in the New York City metro area were suspended or delayed.

An 11-year-old girl was killed when strong winds caused a tree to fall on a parked car in Newburgh, New York, during Tuesday evening’s storms. Two other people were killed in Connecticut in separate incidents when trees fell on their vehicles, local media reported.

Local news showed footage of trees resting on top of crushed cars and houses, vehicles submerged in water and residents handling large hail, some the size of tennis balls.

There were more than 100 reports of hail in states including Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut, the National Weather Service said.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency in several counties in southeast New York and deployed members of the New York National Guard to assist with the recovery.

Officials in Brookfield, Connecticut, declared a town disaster and told residents to stay inside until they could assess the damage.

“Please be aware that there are hundreds of downed trees, utility poles and electrical lines. AVOID all down trees and utility poles as they may still involve LIVE power lines,” the Brookfield Police Department said on Facebook.

Most air traffic was back to normal on Wednesday morning after more than 500 flights were canceled at the three major airports serving the New York area on Tuesday, and more than 100 at Boston’s Logan International, according to tracking service FlightAware.com.