In the wake of a severe winter weather event, another is harassing the northeast. With as many as 350,000 homes and businesses suffering power outages from Texas to the Ohio Valley, ice and more snow has hit Pennsylvania and New England.

A foot of new snow was expected for northern New York and northern New England, but it was ice that most residents of the area feared most. It wreaked havoc on travel and electric service. The new storm is expected to move out to sea late Friday and Saturday, according to the National Weather Service’s in College Park, Maryland.

The ice and snow is expected to remain throughout the weekend due to subfreezing temperatures.

The Groundhog Day winter storm included a tornado in Alabama that dropped more than a foot of snow in sections of the Midwest and brought a rare measurable snowfall as well as power outages to parts of Texas.

The worst of the power outages seemed concentrated in Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, and Ohio due to icy conditions that downed power lines.

The tornado struck a rural area of western Alabama Thursday afternoon, killing one person. Three others were injured.

Winter tornadoes are very rare, but possible. Scientists say that atmospheric conditions have intensified tornado activity because of planet warming.

More than 20-inches of snow blanketed the southern Rockies and more than a foot of snow fell in sections of Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan.

According to FlightAware.com, a service that tracks commercial airline activity, more than 9,000 flights in the U.S. was canceled Thursday and Friday. More than 2,000 flights were canceled on Wednesday when the storm began.

Nearly 70,000 utility customers were without power in Ohio, mostly in the southeastern section of the state.

Power utility personnel said that it could take days before power could be restored.

The disruptive storms began Tuesday and moved through the central U.S. on Wednesday. The storm was in the wake of a nor’easter that struck last weekend.

Severe weather can knockout electricity for several days, weeks, even months. To assure continuous comfort for you and your family during long outages, perhaps you should consider purchasing a standby generator. Generators are now programmed to turn on automatically if power from utilities is cut off. Many generators also feature technological advances that protect electric appliances and consumer electronics products from power surges. These generators also are equipped with Wi-Fi allowing you to control them through your Smartphone from any location on earth.

APElectric has a wide inventory of standalone generators from some of the most popular manufacturers in the country. Visit the company’s website to review the assortment of products they have available.