WEATHER Northeast digs out after storm dumps up to 1 foot of snow

ASSOCIATED PRESS
A storm spread a blanket of snow up to a foot thick across much of the Northeast on Friday, snarling commutes, closing schools and piling up the flakes so fast that shovel crews could barely keep up.
At least five fatal crashes were attributed to the storm, including a New Jersey couple who died when a sport utility vehicle crashed through their bedroom.
Along the Massachusetts-New Hampshire line, the snow fell at a rate of 2 inches per hour. It also fell quickly throughout Connecticut, lowering visibility on highways and secondary roads.
In Maine, the community of Kennebunk recorded more than 4 inches of snow in a single hour.
The snow gave high school teacher Ron Ruth the day off Friday, and he was digging out his house and cars in Cornwall, Pa., about 25 miles east of Harrisburg.
The storm, which dumped up to 10 inches of snow in the Midwest, left as much as 14 inches in parts of New Hampshire; a foot in portions of Massachusetts and around Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; and 10 inches in northwest New Jersey.
In New Jersey, authorities were investigating a wreck involving an SUV that veered off a slick road, crashed into a house and killed a couple as they slept.
Crashes in Ohio killed two drivers Thursday night and early Friday. Snow and ice were also blamed for two auto accidents Friday that killed one person each in New Hampshire and Connecticut.