Nor'easter could cause power outages

Wet snow and gusty winds from a powerful nor'easter could bring a fresh round of power outages to the Eastern United States, a forecaster said. The Energy Department said that, as of late Tuesday, there were 930,783 customers still without power in six states hit by Hurricane Sandy last week. That number could increase as a new storm threatens the coast with heavy, wet snow; strong winds; and plummeting temperatures, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Wednesday. Henry Margusity, a meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. predicted 2 to 4 inches of snow could fall in the region. "It's going to cause problems," he said. Gary Szatkowski, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, said he doesn't expect major coastal flooding like what was seen during Hurricane Sandy. He did predict moderate coastal flooding during high tide Thursday, the Inquirer reported. Stewart Farrell, director of the Richard Stockton Coastal Research Center, said the most vulnerable beaches would be those in Atlantic City, N.J., and Long Beach Island, N.J. In anticipation of poor weather conditions, United Airlines canceled 500 flights from noon Wednesday through noon Thursday out of the three main New York City airports -- Newark, LaGuardia and JFK.