'Heavy, Heavy Snow': Powerful Nor'easter Leaves Hundreds of Thousands in the Cold, Dark

A "bomb nor'easter" has struck the Northeast,  burying some areas under several feet of snow and leaving hundreds of thousands without power. Some areas have been blanketed with more than 30 inches of snow, and it's still coming down.

"Oh, it's like heavy, heavy, heavy snow. About a foot. And it's still snowing," said Massachusetts resident Peter Davis. 

New England, upstate New York, northeastern Pennsylvania, and northern New Jersey have been blasted by the powerful storm.

The winter storm took down power lines across the region and has left hundreds of thousands in the cold and the dark. 

Treacherous road conditions forced drivers to stay home.

"The weather is so bad today," said taxi driver Jean Guerrer. "The problem is I can't go to work because I can't drive now to go to work. That's what's the problem. But it's okay. Y'know, they need the snow. It is very dangerous to drive in the snow."

The storm is also disrupting air travel with more than 4,000 flights delayed and roughly 1,000 flights canceled so far, mostly in the major hubs of New York City and Boston. 

One Delta Airlines plane veered off a paved surface as it taxied for takeoff from a Syracuse airport.

Dangerous heavy snow in Duluth, MN even caused the roof of a mall to collapse.
 
"There was actually a crew on the roof this morning that was clearing snow," said Duluth Fire Chief Shawn Krizaj. "The mall had a crew up there clearing snow from our most recent storm, which they do regularly. They heard some popping. It sounded like the reports initially that we got, they heard some popping, and they evacuated the roof. So, there was no one on the roof or inside the immediate area of collapse."

The storm in the northeast came as another atmospheric river roared into southern California, pelting it with more heavy rains and strong winds. 

Already soaked areas are reporting severe flooding and downed power lines.

One elementary school student there suffered a minor head injury after a redwood fell on her classroom.

Back in Massachusetts, Scituate Town Administrator Jim Boudreau said, "Definitely the worst storm of the season. This is kind of the perfect storm with the wind and the rain, the snow, and the tides."

Meanwhile, forecasters say the nor'easter is expected to continue through Wednesday leaving anywhere from a couple of feet of snow in higher elevations to several inches along the coast. The late storm hit after one of the mildest winters in the area in years.