ROCHESTER (New Hampshire), Dec 14: Utility officials trying to recover from a devastating ice storm in the US northeast warned on Sunday there could be more outages as drooping trees and branches shed ice and snap back into their original positions, potentially taking out more power lines.

Roughly 800,000 customers were still without power in upstate New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine late Saturday. Utility officials in hardest-hit New Hampshire said power might not be restored to the region until Thursday or Friday, a week after the storm knocked down utility lines and poles, leaving 1.4 million in the dark.

President George W. Bush declared a state of emergency in New Hampshire and in nine of Massachusetts’ 14 counties late Saturday, directing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide relief assistance.

Temperatures early on Sunday were largely in the teens and 20s Fahrenheit (-10 to -1 Celsius), with single-digit (temperatures from -17 to -13 C) readings in much of Maine.—AP