A relentless nor’easter pounded the US Atlantic coast with hurricane-force winds and sideways-blown rain and snow on Friday, flooding streets, grounding flights, stopping trains and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power from North Carolina to Maine.

Airlines canceled more than 2,800 flights, mostly in the northeast. LaGuardia airport in New York City grounded all flights and John F Kennedy, also in the city, grounded all but a few departures. Several airlines encouraged travelers to change their Friday and Saturday flights to avoid delays and cancellations at key airports.

The eastern seaboard was hammered by wind gusts exceeding 50mph, with possible winds of 80mph to 90mph on Cape Cod. Hurricane-force winds of 78mph were reported off Wellfleet, Massachusetts.

A pedestrian struggles with an umbrella in New York. Photograph: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

Powerful winds forced Donald Trump to fly out of Dulles international airport instead of Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where Air Force One is housed. The airport in northern Virginia has runways that are more closely aligned with the gusty winds. Trump flew to Charlotte, North Carolina, to attend the funeral of the Rev Billy Graham.

The impact of the storm was widely felt. Heavy snow fell in Ohio and upstate New York as the storm spun eastward. Boston south to Rhode Island was forecast to get 2in to 5in of snow from the late-winter storm.

Amtrak said all services along the north-east corridor, from Washington to Boston, were temporarily suspended “due to multiple weather related issues”. In New Jersey, a downed tree that hit overhead wires suspended some New Jersey Transit commuter service.

More than 1.6m homes and businesses were without power. From North Carolina to Maine and westward to Michigan, the storm felled trees, downed power lines and blew down buildings under construction. The poweroutage.us website reported the most outages in Pennsylvania, where 376,000 homes and businesses had no power on Friday afternoon.

People walk through water covering State Street in Boston. Photograph: Bill Sikes/AP

More than 100,000 customers lost power in Washington DC. The Office of Personnel Management closed all federal offices in the area for the day while the Smithsonian museums also closed.

The front edge of the storm dumped up to a foot of snow on north-east Ohio, with strong winds leading to power outages and school closings. Portions of New York also saw more than a foot of snow Thursday night, downing power lines.



New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, issued a travel advisory for all areas north of New York City, requesting limited travel due to dangerous driving conditions.

High winds downed a tree on to power lines in Takoma Park, Maryland. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Flooding was reported along the east coast, with Massachusetts seeing among the worst. In Scituate, officials asked residents in flooded areas to evacuate. Waves higher than two-story houses battered the area, making roads impassable and turning parking lots into ponds. The Boston Globe reported that 1,855 people alerted Scituate officials that they had evacuated.

On the very tip of Cape Cod, Provincetown resident Andy Towle took video of a 50ft fishing boat breaking free from its mooring, beginning to tip on to the rocks of the breakwater.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Towle resident said. “The harbormaster was down there with police, and they didn’t know what to do.”

WFXT-TV caught submerged cars in Quincy, Massachusetts, south of Boston, as residents ignored police urgings to remain off roads. Police rescued many people in partially submerged and trapped cars.

A wind-downed tree crashed through the metal fencing that surrounds the vice-president’s residence in Washington. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

The Massachusetts governor, Charlie Baker, activated 200 national guard members to help with the storm. “We’re expecting to see more severe flooding issues here than we did in the 4 January storm,” when a nor’easter lashed the region with heavy snow and rain, he said.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said all of Rhode Island was under flood and high wind watches through Sunday morning. A truck toppled over on the Newport Pell Bridge due to high winds, prompting officials to close all major bridges in Rhode Island to commercial vehicles, including school buses.

The Tappan Zee Bridge in New York also closed to heavy trucks because of high winds.