A record winter storm on Halloween eve has been blamed for at least 12 deaths, while more 3.2 million households across the U.S. Northeast are without power and thousands of air travelers are stranded.
Meanwhile, schoolchildren are enjoying "one of the earliest snow days in memory," the Associated Press reports, although the nearly 30 inches of wet snow in some place threatens to disrupt trick-or-treating.
The winter storm, which slammed into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Saturday, smashed record snowfall totals for October.
States of emergency were declared in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and parts of New York while domestic flights out of New Jersey's Newark International Airport were canceled around 4 p.m. Saturday, while the FAA reported major delays — of up to 5 hours — at New York's two airports, John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia, the AP reports.
Passengers on a JetBlue flight stuck on a plane in Hartford, Connecticut, for more than seven hours Saturday, the Guardian write, adding that roads and railways were blocked.
Local officials canceled Halloween trick-or-treating due to downed power lines or damaged trees. "With so many wires down ... the sidewalks will not be safe for pedestrians [Monday] night," Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton reportedly told The Hartford Courant.