A huge winter storm has savaged America’s populous Northeast, leading to flight cancellations, declarations of emergency in six states, power outages affecting more than 650,000 people and at least seven deaths.

Hurricane force winds pummeled Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island and largely spared New York, as the worst of the storm passed by just to the north of New York City.

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.

The Guardian:

[I]n Boston, authorities say an 11-year-old boy died of carbon monoxide poisoning as he sat in a car with the engine running to keep warm. He had been helping his father shovel snow but got into the vehicle to avoid the cold weather. A Boston fire department spokesman said the car’s exhaust was covered by a snow bank, causing the fumes to collect inside.

The heaviest snow appeared to strike Connecticut where 28in (71cm) had fallen on central parts of the state by early Saturday morning. At its height snow was falling there at a rate of up to five inches an hour. Elsewhere areas of south-eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire notched 2ft (60cm) or more of snow – with more still falling on Saturday.

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