(Bloomberg) -- More than 2 million homes and businesses remain without power along the U.S. East Coast after Tropical Storm Isaias battered the region, snapping trees and ripping down utility poles.

In New York, more than 500,000 customers were without power as of 8 a.m. local time, primarily in the city, Hudson Valley and on Long Island, according to utility websites. More than 800,000 were in in the dark in New Jersey. And 930,000 were down in Connecticut.

High winds damaged homes and tore limbs from trees as the storm swept up the the coast from North Carolina on Tuesday. The outages are hitting at an especially difficult time as millions work from home instead of commuting to office buildings, which often have back-up generators.

It’s the second-largest storm-related outage in Consolidated Edison Inc.’s history, following Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Avangrid Inc.’s United Illuminating, which serves Connecticut, said outages could last for days.

The storm caused significant damage to Consolidated Edison overhead power lines in the New York City area, leaving more than 260,000 customers without electricity late Tuesday, the company said in a statement, adding that the destruction surpassed that of Hurricane Irene in 2011.

Outages of more than 100,000 affected Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, and utilities in Maine and Virginia reported slightly less than that Wednesday morning. Repairs may be complicated because of restrictions on movement related to the pandemic.

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