Snowstorm's trick no treat

For all the attention it got for timing (early) and snow accumulation (astonishing) and -- if there were a way to measure this -- annoyance and aggravation, the freakish nor'easter of October may well be remembered as the Grinch that stole Halloween.

From New Jersey to Massachusetts, towns called off trick-or-treating Monday because downed power lines and fallen trees posed a danger to ghosts and goblins in the dark. Other towns in New York and New Jersey suggested what amounted to curfews, urging candy seekers to ring all the doorbells they wanted -- before nightfall.

"One, there's still downed wires," said Michael J. Rohal, the administrator of Glen Ridge, N.J., explaining the decision to postpone trick-or-treating until Friday. "We have traffic signals without power. We have a lot of tree limbs that are down. We have large amount of tree debris, making the sidewalks impassable."

And, with electricity still out in much of the 1.3-square-mile borough, children would have been wandering in total darkness.

But despite the safety concerns, the reaction in many households and on Twitter could be reduced to four words: Good grief, Charlie Brown.

"It's pretty ridiculous," said Maria Lomuscio of Fairfield, N.J., who took eight children trick-or-treating Monday. "You can't cancel Halloween. The kids are all hyped up. They had no school because there's no power and this and that."

If there was a silver lining for school-age trick-or-treaters, it was that Monday became an unusually early snow day, to their delight and their parents' chagrin. Many communities in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire said they expected schools to remain closed for several days.

The cleanup continued in New York City. In Central Park, as many as 1,000 trees may be lost -- eight times the damage sustained after Tropical Storm Irene two months ago. The New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx said more than 2,200 trees in the city's largest remaining old-growth forest had sustained damage. So had trees in other parts of the Garden, including some magnolias.

The storm delayed or stranded many suburban commuters, as railroads assessed problems with frozen switches and snowdrifts on the tracks.

The scenes Monday were like a latter-day Currier & Ives print, but lacking that midwinter cheer. Streets were covered with snow, snow blowers sent up plumes of white, and utility crews struggled to repair broken lines -- but winter is still 50 days away. At nightfall Monday, more than a million electricity customers remained in the dark from New Jersey to Maine.

"We are in full restoration mode," Marcy Reed, president of National Grid Massachusetts, told The Associated Press, as crews cleared branches that had snapped under the weight of the snow. Consolidated Edison's website promised the power would be back on in Westchester County communities by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, almost five days after the storm hit.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Snowstorm-s-trick-no-treat-2245842.php#ixzz1cTJunQYX