219,000 still without power in US northeast

A snow covered sidewalk on Commonwealth Avenue is shown on February 9, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts. The powerful storm has knocked out power to 650,000 and dumped more than two feet of snow in parts of New England. Jared Wickerham/Getty Images/AFP

BOSTON — More than 220,000 homes and businesses remain without electricity following the massive snowstorm that swept across the Northeast, with most outages in hard-hit Massachusetts.

Utilities in Massachusetts are reporting more than 180,000 of their power customers still in the dark Sunday evening, down from more than 400,000.

The storm started Friday night and dumped up to 3 feet (0.91 meters) of snow and knocked out power to more than 650,000 homes and businesses in eight states, from Maine to Pennsylvania.

About 34,000 customers in Rhode Island and more than 4,700 in Connecticut still were without power Sunday night.

Most power has been restored in New York, with just over 500 customers still in the dark. That’s down from nearly 12,000.