A nor’easter on the first day of winter buried parts of northern New England under more than 3 feet of snow and added to the misery for thousands of New Hampshire residents still in the dark more than a week after a crippling ice storm hit the region.

In Maine, the town of Eustis was walloped by 41.8 inches of snow in less than 24 hours – making it a doozy of a storm even by New England standards.

Eustis was in a band of heavy snow across western Maine, which was “the sweet spot of the storm,” according Eric Schwibs from the National Weather Service.

For residents, however, the snowfall wasn’t so sweet.

“I had to push my way out the door and it was above my waist in my driveway,” said Mark Humphries, manager of the Northland general store in the village of Stratton, which is part of Eustis. It took him three hours to clear the sidewalk in front of the store, he added.

Linda Shane said her car got stuck as she backed out of her driveway, and she couldn’t open her door to get out because of the snow. She ended up calling for help.

“It’s beautiful but it’s a little crazy,” said Shane, who eventually made it to her job as branch manager at Camden National Bank in Stratton. “The snow is right up to the top of the vehicles.”

From her bank, Shane said she couldn’t see beyond the parking lot because of snow that was piled up. “You can’t see the gas station across the street,” she said.

The snowfall broke records in Concord, N.H, and Portland, Maine, although neither city came close to topping Eustis’ snow tally. Concord’s 10 inches of snow broke the record of 7.9 inches for the date that had held since 1914; Portland’s 14.5 inches surpassed the old record for the date of 12.4 inches in 1933, officials said.

Elsewhere in Maine, Island Falls and Oakfield had 23 inches of snow, Houlton had 22 inches, Waterville 18 inches, Skowhegan 16 inches, Augusta 14.5 inches and Bangor 13 inches.

In New Hampshire, Lost River and Hampton had 21 inches of snow, North Conway had 15.5 inches and Laconia had 14 inches. Vermont also saw heavy snow with reports of 17.5 inches in St. Johnsbury, Rochester and Randolph Center, 14 inches in Montpelier, and 7.2 inches in St. Albans.

Sunday’s storm sent cars and trucks sliding but there were no reports of storm-related deaths. By Monday, a massive cleanup was under way across the region.

In western Maine, the cleanup included removal of a logging truck and a plow truck that blocked traffic at the U.S.-Canada border for more than 12 hours.

The problem started late Sunday when the logging truck jackknifed on Route 201 south of the border station in Sandy Bay Township, then a plow truck got stuck, compounding the problem, said Robert Higgins of the Somerset County Emergency Management Agency.

Before the storm even arrived, the National Weather Service issued a rare blizzard warning for eastern and northern Maine. Brooklin, on the Down East coast, recorded a gust of 59 mph, while much of eastern and northern Maine recorded gusts of 30 to 40 mph.

The strong winds and heavy snow knocked out electricity for about 4,600 Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. customers, most of them in Maine’s Hancock County, officials said.

In New Hampshire, the snow didn’t help crews working to restore electricity for the nearly 10,000 customers who’ve been in the dark since an ice storm on Dec. 11-12.

At the peak, there were nearly 450,000 homes and businesses without electricity in New Hampshire in the worst ice storm in the state’s history. By Monday, 1,200 line and tree-cutting crews were picking away at remaining power outages in New Hampshire.

AP-ES-12-22-08 1717EST