Powerful storm pummels US Northeast

Heavy rain and strong winds battered the northeastern United States on Sunday as an unusually powerful autumn storm intensified, leaving tens of thousands without power and US media reporting one person dead.

New York, Boston and Philadelphia were all in the firing line of the "Nor'easter" as authorities warned of potential major flooding and road closures. The storm continued to dump rain during its "churn off the coast of the northern Mid-Atlantic and southern New England Saturday afternoon," the National Weather Service said in its latest forecast.

Nearly 80,000 customers in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania were without power as of 1:30 am Sunday.