More than 60 million Americans were in the path of a dangerous nor'easter that was hitting late Wednesday into Thursday. About 8.5 million people were expected to get the worst of it, including torrential rain and powerful wind gusts.

The National Weather Service in Boston warned of "very heavy rain" and "strong to perhaps damaging" winds. The National Weather Service said there could be rough surf and flooding in the northeast U.S. and New England through Thursday.

"This is going to be a record-breaking storm," said CBS News weather contributor Jeff Berardelli.

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The storm will be especially strong, Berardelli said, because of one in the Great Lakes and a storm that was moving up the eastern seaboard. Those storms were merging to form the nor'easter, which Berardelli predicted would lead to record-low pressure for any October.

A powerful nor'easter will bring very strong winds, heavy rainfall, rough surf, and flooding to portions of the Northeast U.S. and New England through Thursday. — National Weather Service (@NWS) October 17, 2019

The heaviest bands of rain were expected to move through New England Wednesday night, likely causing airport delays. Wind gusts of up to 70 mph were expected in parts of Cape Cod.

The nor'easter could also lead to power outages, and may even bring snow to the highest-altitude parts of the Catskills and Adirondacks by Thursday afternoon, Berardelli added.