Storms cover the northeast of the US with snow and cleanup work begins in the south after a balance of 12 deaths

The storm system that brought strong winds, snowfall and killed at least 12 people in the southern United States, covered the northeast of the country in white on Saturday, with over a foot of snow in regions like New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

Although storm conditions began to abate toward Saturday night, authorities they still warned that it was dangerous to drive after dozens of reports of cars and trucks running off the roads.

In the Albany region, the capital of New York, crews worked to restore power to nearly 20,000 customers as heavy, wet snow snapped tree limbs.

In the South and Midwest of the country cleanup work started after the storm produced ferocious winds and heavy snow that caused widespread damage and multiple deaths before moving across the Northeast on Saturday.

The death toll from the storm rose with additional deaths reported in Indiana and Michigan, while the governor of Kentucky said at least five people were killed in that state as the system generated straight-line winds, possible tornadoes and powerful thunderstorms in the south on Friday.

The system previously hit California with up to 10 feet of snow. Search teams have rescued several stranded Californians in the state’s mountain communities, and it is likely that some residents in the mountains east of Los Angeles remain trapped in their homes for at least another week after the snowfall proved too much for most snowplows to handle.

In Indiana, a state trooper was struck by a vehicle and died Friday afternoon while helping with traffic jams following weather-related accidents.

Chief Officer James R. Bailey, 50, was struck while deploying stop poles on Interstate 69 near Auburn to stop a speeding fleeing Fort Wayne police vehicle, state police said. A 42-year-old Marion, Indiana man has been arrested and faces one charge of resisting law enforcement causing the death of a law enforcement officer.

In Michigan, a 80-year-old man was struck and killed Friday night by a machine snowplow backing up while clearing snow from a driveway in Ann Arbor, MLive.com reported. The snowplow driver said he didn’t know he had hit the man until a passerby caught his eye, police said.

At least five deaths were reported in hard-hit Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear said Saturday. The storm, with wind gusts exceeding 70 mph, downed trees and power lines and damaged homes and other buildings.

“This is very significant and widespread damage throughout Kentucky,” Beshear said.

In central Tennessee, where the Severe weather downed power lines and damaged homes, at least two deaths were attributed to the storm. In both cases, the victims were struck by falling trees, authorities told local media.

About 728,000 utility customers in Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee lost power, according to PowerOutage.us. More than 330,000 of those customers were in Kentucky, and the governor warned that it would take days for utility crews to fully restore service.

Kentucky electric cooperatives reported hundreds of downed utility poles and thousands of downed power lines across the Bluegrass state. Soft ground due to heavy rains slowed the progress of heavy equipment to access damaged infrastructure.

“The damage from this event is as extensive as any natural disaster I have seen in the history of Kentucky cooperatives,” said Chris Perry, president and CEO of Kentucky Electric Cooperatives.

In Alabama, a man 70 years old who was sitting in his pickup truck in Talledega County he died when a tree fell on his vehicle. A 43-year-old man in Lauderdale County and a man in Huntsville also died Friday from falling trees, local authorities said. Heavy rains caused flooding in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas.

In the upper Midwest, snowfall this Saturday caused widespread power outages and forced the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport to close briefly Friday night. Thousands of residents in the region had already been without power for days after recent ice storms hit Michigan.

Victoria Burnett felt a foreboding as snow began to fall Friday in Farmington Hills, northwest of Detroit. Burnett was without power for seven days after the first ice storm. She was able to use a generator until she got service back on her.

“When it started snowing (Friday) and I saw that it was heavy, wet snow, I was really worried,” Burnett said. His lights flickered, but the power stayed on.