More than 500,000 lose power to bomb cyclone in Northeast

Oct. 17 (UPI) -- More than 500,000 homes and businesses in the Northeast lost power Thursday as a quickly moving "bomb cyclone" knocked down trees and electrical lines throughout the region.

The storm pushed some of the coldest air of the season through the Northeast. Wind gusts of up to 55 mph could be felt along the coast from Maine to as far south as Cape May, N.J., and some parts of Delaware.

Towns like Duxbury, Mass., saw homes damaged as strong gusts blew through the area forcing schools to close.

"This whole town got hit pretty hard," Duxbury Fire Capt. Rob Reardon told ABC News. "You can tell by just the amount of trees, the wires, the damage to houses. Roads are blocked, schools are shut down because school buses can't access these streets at all. We're having a difficult time trying to get to calls from one side of town to the other."

About a quarter of Maine residents, about 200,000 customers, lost power early Thursday. Flights arriving into New York's La Guardia International Airport were delayed for nearly two hours because of the high winds.

Winds are expected to taper off Friday giving way to clearer skies. Temperatures will be 5 to 10 degrees below normal as an area of high pressure moves in.

"A few locations may equal or dip slightly lower than their lowest point so far this season in terms of actual temperature by Saturday morning," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said. "That mark is 34 [degrees] in Pittsburgh, 42 in Boston, 45 in New York City, 46 in Philadelphia and 49 in Washington, D.C."

"Temperatures are forecast to rebound for several days this weekend and into next week before much colder air sweeps in prior to the end of October," Sosnowski added.