Men with snow shovels wait to cross Broad Street during a winter storm in Philadelphia today.

PHILADELPHIA — A relentless winter storm blasted the Northeast with hurricane-force winds, deep snow and flooding today, cutting power to at least 650,000 homes and businesses, fanning a hotel fire in northern New England and disrupting air and road travel.

Power failures were so bad in New Hampshire that even the state Emergency Operations Center was operating on a generator.

The highest wind reported was 91 mph in Portsmouth, N.H. — well above hurricane force of 74 mph. Gusts hit 60 mph or more from New York's Long Island to Massachusetts.

Public Service of New Hampshire, the state's largest utility, reported power cut to at least 237,000 homes and businesses and said it would take days before everyone's lights flickered back on.

There were more than 200,000 customers without power in New York, mostly in the Hudson Valley north of New York City, 100,000 each in Maine and Massachusetts, 25,000 in Vermont, and a few thousand more scattered across New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Heavy snow closed a 30-mile stretch of Interstate 84 in New York state, and state Police Sgt. Stephen Meehan called travel conditions throughout the mid-Hudson Valley "an absolute disaster." Tuxedo, N.Y., reported 26 inches of snow, with more coming down.

In New York City, 17 inches of snow had fallen before dawn and more was expected. A man was killed by a falling snow-laden tree branch in Central Park, one of at least three deaths being blamed on the storm.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who had said Thursday the nation's largest public school district would stay open, changed his mind. It's the second snow day of the month there, but only the fourth in six years.

Eric Warner of Brooklyn had to brave it. He drove a truckload of milk, eggs and cheese from Teaneck, N.J., into Manhattan. The roads were terrible, he said, and even carrying the crates was hard.

"When the snow hits you, it feels like little needles," he said.

It's not just the schoolchildren who won't be headed in today.

Airports around the region were dealing with heavy cancellations and telling passengers to check with airlines before trying to get to airports.

New Jersey Transit canceled all buses in the northern half of the state before the morning commute began in earnest, including those that take workers to New York. Government offices in New Jersey were opening two hours late.

A day after airlines canceled hundreds of flights across the Northeast, the real threat was expected to be the strong wind that could create blizzard conditions.

In Hampton, N.H., winds helped spread a fire that started in an unoccupied oceanfront hotel, damaging another six to eight businesses, including a restaurant and a games arcade, fire Capt. David Lang said. No injuries were reported, and no cause had been identified.

One day after parts of northeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Maine dealt with upward of 20 inches of snow and areas of northern New England weathered heavy rains that pushed some rivers toward flood levels, more of the same was forecast throughout today.

The worst was expected in southern Maine, where the Presumpscot River crested more than 8 feet above flood stage around 7 a.m. today.

Much of the region, particularly Philadelphia and southern New Jersey, only recently finished cleaning up from a pair of storms a few weeks ago.

The latest winter storm was packing wet, heavy snow that could dump a foot or more in some areas and powerful, damaging winds could complicate any cleanup.

The National Weather Service said a potent area of low pressure was expected to linger off Long Island today before drifting slowly north toward southern New England and weakening on Saturday.