By Scott Malone and Victoria Cavaliere
BOSTON/NEW YORK, Feb 5 (Reuters) - The latest in a series of winter storms hit the United States on Wednesday, dropping wet, heavy snow in the Northeast states that disrupted travel and threatened supplies of salt needed to keep roads clear.
Almost a million homes and businesses were without power in the Northeast on Wednesday afternoon following severe snow and ice storms overnight, according to local power companies.
The hardest-hit state was Pennsylvania with more than 849,000 customers were without power at one point, according to the governor.
Throughout the United States, 2,880 flights were canceled on Wednesday, according to FlightAware.com, an online flight tracking site.
The weather hit airports in the Northeast particularly hard, with roughly half the departing flights canceled out of Newark Liberty International, LaGuardia Airport and Boston's Logan International, FlightAware said.
The governors of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania declared states of emergency.
SALT SHORTAGES
Officials in New York and New Jersey warned they were starting to run short of the rock salt used by road crews to keep ice from building up on highways and local roads, the result of the season's repeated storms.
"We have a salt shortage for some parts of the state, primarily New York City and the Long Island area, because there have been so many storms this season already," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters on a conference call. "The state does have a significant amount of salt on hand. We'll be shipping that salt around the state."
Neighboring New Jersey reported a similar salt shortage.
"We've had so many storms, one after another, that it definitely has put a very significant demand on salt," said Joe Dee, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.
"Our supplies are dwindling," Dee added. "We have plenty for this storm. We're looking at some weekend storms and we have enough for that, but we're going to start to get low. We need some good weather and a chance to replenish our supplies."
As of Jan. 26, New Jersey spent $60 million on snow removal, putting it on pace to break the record of $62.5 million spent last year, Dee said.
New York City has spread some 346,000 tons of rock salt on its roads so far this year, almost the total for last winter, said Belinda Mager, a spokeswoman for the city Department of Sanitation. The city has spent $57.3 million on snow removal so far this winter, putting it on track to top last year's spending.
Most U.S. states and major cities do not try to set an upper limit on spending for snow removal but authorize agencies to spend what is necessary and count on legislatures to cover the cost.