Updated at 1 a.m. ET: Snow fell on damaged homes and debris piles in parts of the New York City area as a nor'easter moved in Wednesday, causing new power outages and calls for evacuations. 

By Wednesday night, the winds had caused more than 100,000 new power outages in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, the U.S. Energy Department stated. That brought the total number to 715,000, most of those remaining from Superstorm Sandy, which made landfall in New Jersey on Oct. 29.

Throughout the Tri-state area, people wore coats indoors as they endured yet another night without heat. Some of those who had weathered Sandy told NBC New York on Wednesday they were petrified.

"It's like a sequel to a horror movie," said James Alexander, a resident of the hard-hit Rockaway Peninsula. "Here we are, nine days later — freezing, no electricity, no nothing, waiting for another storm."

Alexander's home was spared when Sandy hit, but homes around him burned to the ground, and the boardwalk near his home was washed out to sea.

"They said it would be a rough winter," he noted to NBC New York.

About 1,200 flights were canceled across the Northeast, while residents of a few areas hit hardest by Superstorm Sandy last week were urged to evacuate in case of new flooding. Long Island Rail Road service was also suspended before 7 p.m. because of weather-related signal problems, NBC New York reported.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg directed police to use their patrol car loudspeakers to warn the 20,000 to 30,000 residents in vulnerable areas to evacuate. In Belle Harbor, in Queens, police patrolled the streets, advertising a warming shelter. Officers found that most had left their homes to stay with family, NBC New York reported.

In Toms River, N.J., residents of nearby barrier island communities lashed out at the city council because they had not been allowed to return to their homes since before Sandy hit.

Said one resident at a city council meeting: "These people need to understand it's our island, it's our home, and we need to defend it like it's a castle."

The nor'easter, dubbed "Athena" by The Weather Channel, could produce strong gusts that could also turn up piled debris from Sandy into projectiles. (Last month, The Weather Channel announced it will name noteworthy winter storms in an effort to “better communicate the threat and the timing of the significant impacts that accompany these events.")

"One of the bigger concerns ... would be the debris that's been piled up from all the residences and the businesses," Kevin O'Hara, police chief in Point Pleasant, N.J., told The Weather Channel.

From weather.com: Storm's city-by-city forecasts

"With winds picking up to 30-, 40-, 50-mile-per-hour gusts," he added, "our fear is that if people are out and about they could be hit by flying debris. We would urge people to stay in their houses, stay home, and let the storm pass."

The Long Island Power Authority dedicated more than 12,000 workers to restoring power to its customers -- 8,000 of those workers were linemen and tree trimming crews from around the country, including some who had been airlifted in by the National Guard.

Snow storms are unusual at this time of year in the New York area. Snowfall had never previously been recorded at Islip, N.Y., Kennedy and LaGuardia airports.

Central Park recorded 2.8 inches of snowfall, beating the 1878 record of 0.1 inches. Bridgeport, Conn., saw 3.5 inches, breaking the former record of 2.0 inches set in 1953. In Newark, N.J., 2.0 inches fell; trace amounts had been recorded in 1981.

"It's not a massive nor'easter by winter standards," said Weather Channel expert Tom Niziol, "but at this time of year immediately after Sandy's wrath and destruction, this isn't what we want."

"Mother Nature is not cutting us a break along the East Coast," he said.

As the day cooled into night, The Weather Channel forecast three inches of snow in Philadelphia with wind gusts over 30 mph, a combination of wet snow and wind in New Jersey, and snowfall totals of six to 12 inches in southeastern New York and New England.

NBCNewYork.com's coverage of nor'easter

In New York, Bloomberg expected up to three inches of snow. He said no new flooding occurred along the city's coastal areas "through the first and most dangerous cycle of high tide" on Wednesday afternoon.

Bloomberg had ordered three nursing homes and an adult care facility evacuated Tuesday from Queens' vulnerable Rockaway Peninsula. About 620 residents were moved. 

Fearing winds could down more trees, the city also closed all parks, playgrounds and beaches at noon Wednesday, and ordered all construction sites to be secured.

Airlines cancel flights ahead of nor'easter

Sandy killed more than 100 people, mainly in New York City and New Jersey, and left more than 8 million homes and businesses without power.

John Makely / NBC News

Postal carrier Kenneth Henn delivers mail in the evacuated section of Belmar, N.J., on Tuesday as earth moving machines pile sand along the beach.

Fearing looters, Alex Ocasio told The Associated Press that he planned to ride out the latest storm in his first-floor Rockaway apartment — even after seeing cars float by his front door during Sandy. 

As the water receded during Sandy, men dressed in dark clothes broke down the door and were surprised to find him and other residents inside, he said.

Full NBC coverage of Sandy's aftermath

"They tried to say they were rescue workers, then took off," he said. 

He put up a handmade sign — "Have gun. Will shoot U" — outside his apartment and started using a bed frame to barricade the door. He has gas, so he keeps the oven on and boils water to stay warm at night. 

"It gets a little humid, but it's not bad," he said. "I'm staying. Nothing can be worse than what happened last week." 

NBC's Isolde Raftery, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Slideshow: Recovering after Sandy

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Millions trying to recover from Superstorm Sandy were not getting much cooperation from Mother Nature: Lows this weekend were set to dip into the 30s, an issue for elderly and others without power, while a nor'easter winter storm is possibly on its way. 

"We just want to get heat so we can survive at night," a resident of Essex Falls, N.J., told NBC 4 New York on Friday, four days after her power went out. "It's so cold out."

"Everybody's tired of it already," Rosemarie Zurlo, a resident of New York City's West Village told NBCNewYork.com.

She said she planned to leave her powerless, unheated apartment to stay with her sister in Brooklyn. "I'm leaving because I'm freezing. My apartment is ice cold."

On top of the cold, the National Weather Service's prediction center, in a Friday update, cited the "potential for a nor'easter along the Atlantic Coast next Wednesday and Thursday."

"No rest for the weary," it added.

The system wouldn't be another Sandy, but it could build off North Carolina next Tuesday, then move up the coast and affect New Jersey, Long Island and other hard-hit areas by Wednesday.

"The possible storm next week is not of the same make up as Sandy," prediction center forecaster Jim Cisco told NBC News, "though any more rain, snow or wind would certainly pose exacerbating effects on the impacted regions."

"This is just what we don't need," added NBC News meteorologist Al Roker, saying winds could gust up to 45 miles per hour.

"You look at those winds coming counterclockwise, bringing in with it the potential for one to two more inches of rain ... and wet snow inland just along the New York/New Jersey border," he said. "We're talking about wet snow mixing in."

Those gusts along with waves in "already compromised beaches along New Jersey and Long Island ... could cause big problems," Roker added.

"It's not definite," he emphasized, but two key models used by weather forecasters are in agreement "that this is going to happen. It's just a matter of how strong this system is going to be."

The Weather Channel echoed that concern.

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"At this point we do not expect the impacts to 'break anything that is not already broken'," weather.com winter weather expert Tom Niziol wrote Friday. "However the combination of weather impacts will add insult to injury for the recovery process along the East Coast."

NBC News meteorologist Bill Karins said that while the new system would have only a fraction of Sandy's power it comes at a vulnerable time. "Its greatest impact will be battering waves along the Sandy impact zone," he predicted. "Beaches/structures have no protection from wave action at high tide cycles until the dunes can build back up."

"Other impacts are very minor," he added. "Rain/winds could delay line crews restoring power and there would be some danger  of falling already loosened tree branches."

Even before any nor'easter, Northeast residents were told to expect evening low temperatures to dip a few degrees into the low-to-mid 30s over the weekend.

New Yorkers can expect a stiff breeze Saturday morning to make it feel like it's in the 20s, NBCNewYork.com reported.

Slideshow: Sandy slams into East Coast

David Friedman / NBC News

Superstorm Sandy made landfall Monday evening on a destructive and deadly path across the Northeast.

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The utility Con Edison is working to restore power to some 226,000 customers in Manhattan by Saturday, but that would still leave some 350,000 of its customers elsewhere in New York City potentially in the dark beyond Saturday.

Con Edison said it hoped the vast majority of those would have power by Nov. 11.

As for a potential nor'easter, Con Edison spokeswoman Sara Banda told NBC News that "we're going to have to take that into account."

The areas taking the longest for restored power, Banda said, are those with overhead lines. "It's taking a bit longer," she said, noting that crews have had to deal with 100,000 downed lines.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday warned New Yorkers about using candles to provide heat, noting that at least one home caught fire as a result. 

"I know it's chilly, I know you want to have light at night," he said, "but don't leave candles unattended."

New Jersey has also been hard hit with outages, and many homes there were told not to expect power until next week.

In Beachwood, 11-year-old Zach Molino took matters into his own hands -- and wagon -- by biking around his neighborhood to collect wood from fallen trees for his family's fireplace.

Courtesy Of Pat Murray

Zach Molino of Beachwood, N.J., gathers firewood for the family fireplace.

Across the region, 3.5 million homes and businesses still were without power Friday afternoon, according to a tally from the federal government.

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A nor'easter winter storm could hit the Mid-Atlantic and New England next week, the National Weather Service warned, but said the impact would be nowhere near as devastating as Superstorm Sandy.

The storm may affect the regions anywhere between "Election Day (Tuesday) into next Thursday," the service's prediction center said in a statement Thursday afternoon.

"Increasing winds along coastal New England and coastal Mid-Atlantic states Tuesday onward may lead to some coastal flooding and beach erosion," it added. 

In a statement earlier Thursday, the center said "it should be noted that this system is expected to be much weaker than Hurricane Sandy and produce impacts much less extreme and mainly away from the region most strongly impacted by Sandy."

The Weather Channel echoed that scenario.

"At this time it looks as though coastal impacts would be farther north along the New England coast than we saw with Sandy," wrote weather.com winter weather expert Tom Niziol. "Snowfall would be confined to northern New England. Also, this system will not be anywhere as impactful as Sandy. That being said, it is much too early to discuss details and we will need to keep a close eye on future forecasts to fine tune the evolution of this system."

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A disruptive spring storm already pummeling the Atlantic seaboard Saturday will delay the space shuttle Enterprise’s trip to New York and bring winter-like snow to the Appalachians and Great Lakes, forecasters warn.

Rain that washed out ballgames and festivals in southern Florida was moving north and expected to meet cold air moving south from Canada, forecasters said.

Tornado watches were issued late Saturday in central and southern Florida.

Severe thunderstorms with wind gusts up to 34 mph struck Delaware, New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania on Saturday night.

Up to 4 inches of rain was forecast Sunday from Washington, D.C., to New York City.

NWS

National Weather Service forecast for Sunday

“It’s going to be a very, very intense Nor’easter,” said Michael Eckert, senior branch forecaster with the National Weather Service based in Camp Springs, Maryland.

Winds of 30 to 50 miles per hour are expected on the coast.

“The weather will be going downhill during the day on Sunday,” Eckert said.

Snow is forecast to fall across the Appalachians in West Virginia and reach central Pennsylvania on Sunday night and move up to the Buffalo, N.Y., area by Monday. Snow levels are forecast to be above 1,000 feet elevation by Monday night. Snow was also possible for Buffalo and Pittsburgh.

The Weather Channel warned this would be heavy, wet snow that could cause tree and power line damage, especially after record March warmth sent trees into full leaf far earlier than usual.

Heavy rainfall capable of flooding was also expected Sunday into Monday morning in southern New England and eastern Maine and New Hampshire later Monday.

NASA said Monday's planned arrival of the shuttle has been postponed "until further notice."

The Enterprise is being brought to the city where it has a new permanent home waiting at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.

NASA managers are monitoring weather forecasts and will reschedule the shuttle's flight as soon as possible, the space agency said.

The plan is to fly the shuttle atop a carrier aircraft to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. It will be moved by barge to the Intrepid museum for public display.

The museum is at a decommissioned aircraft carrier moored at Manhattan. It's been making room for the shuttle on its flight deck.

This article includes reporting by The Weather Channel, The Associated Press and Reuters.

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