The blizzard walloping the state for much of the past day is finally beginning to let up at this hour. The snow and high winds closed schools, shut down state and local government, knocked out electricity and caused the death of a motorist in Wells. Amtrak finally restored its Portland to Boston service this afternoon, but nearly all flights at Maine's airports were cancelled.

Governor John Baldacci declared a state of emergency in Maine Sunday, hours before the first snowflakes fell from the sky. The move capped a steady stream of warnings from emergency officials that the winter's first big storm could be a doozy. Andrew Pohl, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, says it has been--with as much as 10 inches on the ground in southern Maine and foot or more farther north.

Pohl: We're not out of the woods yet. 

Here's the problem, says Pohl. Over the next few hours, the snow will taper off in Maine and New Hampshire. But high winds will continue to blow blinding sheets of snow...

Pohl: Like I-95, I would think, may be a problem, the way its oriented. The winds are going to be blowing left to right across it, if you're headed north. And that's gonna cause additional ice accumulating on the road. Some roads may even get completely drifted over and blown shut. So I think it's going to pose some challenges for the Department of Transportation road crews.

Bern: My full name is Brian Bern and my title is the Highway Maintenence Engineer for Maine DOT. If it's a lighter storm, where we can get away with less trucks and stretch out the routes and stuff we'll do that. But this type of storm ususally requires pretty full coverage.

The DOT has nearly four hundred plow trucks clearing Maine's highways and state roads. Bern says they've had a relatively easy time spreading salt, moving snow and keeping major highways and state roads clear.

Bern: A lot of help from the National Weather Service and Weather Channels and so forth, talkin' about this, kinda hypin' it up. Which is nice cause it keeps people off the roads.

And out of the way of snowplows and other vehicles. So far, emergency officials say accidents across the state have largely been limited to fender benders and cars sliding into snow drifts, with one tragic exception. Last night, a 59 year-old man was killed, when his pick-up truck hit a tree in whiteout conditions in Wells. This morning, nearly three thousand residents in York County and more than a thousand in Hancock  county lost power. And, flights in and out of Maine's airports were cancelled. Some people, though, woudln't mind one bit if the snow just kept coming down.

Morse: It's kind of like waking up to Christmas day, all over again.

Darcy Morse is with Sunday River, the ski resort in Newry.

Morse: There are a lot of skiers and snow boarders out there with bi smiles on their faces. we are counting sixteen inches and it's still snowing. This is perfectly timed with our holiday week and the guests that are coming in expecting snowy conditions. So, we're very happy.

Up next, according to weather forecasters: a deep freeze. Overnight, temperatures will plunge into the single digits in some parts of the state.

[The audio for this story is not yet available. We apologize for the inconvenience]