Second winter storm in one week wreaks havoc in New York, neighboring areas

NEW YORK, March 8 (Xinhua) -- More than 1,900 flights were grounded and over 300,000 people were without power Thursday after the second winter storm in a week hit the U.S. state of New York and neighboring areas.

Winds generated sustained speeds between 30 and 40 mph (48 to 64 km per hour) and more than two feet of snow (over 0.6 meters) were dumped on parts of the area, stranding commuters on the roads and rails and bringing another round of damage and power outages to towns still recovering from a previous storm, local TV channels reported early Thursday.

No fatalities had been reported from the storm, but several people had weather-related injuries from Wednesday's weather.

Although the storm was not predicted to be as severe as last Friday's nor'easter that toppled trees and inundated coastal communities, it still proved to be a headache for the tens of thousands of people still left without power from the earlier storm -- and for the crews trying to restore power to them.

As of early Thursday morning, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said more than 154,000 customers, mainly in the Hudson Valley and on Long Island, were without power after Wednesday's storm.

In the neighboring state of New Jersey, about 150,000 people were in the dark. Some of those outages were left over after the last storm.

Passenger railroad service Amtrak suspended service between New York City and Boston until at least 10 a.m. (1500 GMT) Thursday. Service on all three Metro-North lines that depart from Grand Central Terminal were suspended Wednesday and suspensions on other lines lingered into Thursday.

Amtrak said it expected to operate on a reduced schedule with certain branches suspended until further notice. Delays and crowded conditions were expected.

Multiple New Jersey Transit lines and Long Island Rail Road branches also reported suspensions and delays. Enditem