City and town leaders throughout New London County reported few major problems connected with the blizzard and whiteout conditions for much of Thursday, but by evening, high winds caused some tree limbs to fall and sporadic power outages as temperatures dropped.

At 8:30 p.m., Eversource was reporting about 440 homes without power in Stonington and another 121 in North Stonington, after a motor vehicle accident that closed portions of routes 2 and 49.

Stonington's acting First Selectman John Prue said that town was monitoring the effort to restore power to more than 440 Pawcatuck customers. A vehicle hit low-hanging wires, and three poles were damaged near the intersection of routes 2 and 49. A transformer fire or fuse failure on Alice Court also may have been caused by the accident, according to a report on the Stonington Emergency Operations Facebook page, bit.ly/StEmergencyFB. The intersection was expected to be closed for the next 12 to 15 hours.

Prue said the town would decide whether to open the emergency shelter at Stonington High School. Five Eversource crews were on scene and power was expected to be out for an extended period of time, he said. There was no estimate at 9:30 p.m. when power would be restored, but as of about 10 p.m., Prue said that Eversource informed him that it was able to switch some circuits from its headquarters that allowed power to be restored to all but 60 buildings.

Earlier in the evening, Eversource reported power outages in several towns, including 113 in Ledyard. Waterford police said downed trees caused power outages in the areas of Old Norwich, Old Barry and Hunts Brook roads. Eversource reported 13 power outages in Waterford as of 5 p.m. Thursday. Preston First Selectman Robert Congdon said residents on Hewitt Road also lost power Thursday evening.

State police reported Thursday evening that troopers responded to 865 calls for service statewide, including three accidents with injuries, none fatal, 66 accidents without injuries and 330 motorist assistance calls.

The anticipated high winds, drifting snow and dropping temperatures already led school officials in several towns to cancel school for Friday, including Norwich, New London, Waterford, Montville and Preston. Those closures are have been posted on theday.com.

Municipal and emergency management officials throughout the region said that closures of state and local offices, schools and many businesses helped ease the snow clearing task throughout the day Thursday. Southeast Area Transit buses also suspended service Thursday. SEAT planned to resume regular service on Friday.

“For the most part, people are where they need to be, at home or at work," said Joseph Sastre, Groton director of emergency management, adding, "a little common sense goes a long way."

Ledyard Mayor Fred Allyn III said road crews initially were able to get ahead of the storm, but as the snow intensified, even with the preparation, plowed roads still had about an inch of snow accumulated on them, and total accumulation was 4 inches on routes 117 and 214, with town roads seeing more snow.

“It’s certainly one of the coldest, harshest starts to the year we’ve had in a while,” Allyn said.

Many businesses closed for the day, but Two Brothers Pizza in Salem was busy. The restaurant offered to provide lunch and dinner to town road crews. “We’re fortunate to have that,” a grateful First Selectman Kevin Lyden said.

Norwich Public Utilities and Groton Utilities reported no power outages as of Thursday evening. NPU crews, however, spent much of Thursday repairing a water main break in the area of Surrey Lane, Norton Court and Sycamore Road. About 120 customers were without water, NPU spokesman Chris Riley said. Water service was restored by 4 p.m., Riley said. Eight NPU employees worked in the bitter cold, snow and freezing water from about 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. to repair the break, rotating among themselves to warm and dry up, Riley said. "Brutal," he added.

With strong winds, drifting snow and temperatures expected to drop into the teens or lower overnight, power outages remained the top concern of city and town leaders. No emergency shelters were opened as of Thursday evening, but emergency management officials said they are prepared if shelters are needed. East Lyme First Selectman Mark Nickerson said his town would open a regional shelter if East Lyme or surrounding towns see widespread power outages.

“Losing power is always the worst fear in this weather," Old Lyme First Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder said.

Prue said highway crews kept up with Thursday's intense snowfall in part because the town has spent millions of dollars in recent years to upgrade its fleet of trucks and equipment. He said the town would open the shelter if a large number of people were without power. If a small number of residents were without power, the town may first look to use Groton’s shelter, he said.

Old Lyme Emergency Management Director Dave Roberge said he had measured 7 inches of snow by 11:30 a.m. at the emergency management center on Boston Post Road. He said police, emergency management and fire crews had not received any storm-related calls. The emergency center kept in contact with members of the special needs and elderly populations who have registered for assistance if needed, he said. Any Old Lyme resident with storm-related issues could call the emergency management center at (860) 598-0210.

"People are heeding the advice of hunkering down and staying put and riding out the storm,” Roberge said.

For Norwich residents, additional storm-related information is available on the Emergency Management section of the city’s website: bit.ly/NRemergency.