PORTLAND, Maine – A storm that swept across the East Coast dealt a severe blow to New England. It brought powerful gusts that knocked out power, along with a deluge of rain and warming temperatures that washed away snow and dampened ski resorts.

An atmospheric river carried moisture north from the tropics and brought heavy rain. Utility workers were deployed to deal with power outages after winds were expected to peak overnight into Thursday.

Nearly 52,000 customers in Maine had lost power as of Wednesday evening, according to poweroutage.us. In Massachusetts, nearly 11,000 people were without power.

A deepening low-pressure system was responsible for the winds that ravaged the region, said Derek Schroeter, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Meteorologists feared bombogenesis, or a “bomb cyclone,” characterized by rapid intensification over a 24-hour period.

“Is that what they call it?” said Jen Roberts, co-owner of Onion River Outdoors sporting goods store in Montpelier, Vermont. She lamented that a five-day period of snowfall that had drawn ski customers to the store was washed away, underscoring the region’s unsettled weather. “But you know, this is New England. We know this happens.”

Ski resort operators called it bad luck because the holidays were approaching.

“We don’t say the ‘R word’ here. “That’s a forbidden word,” said Jamie Cobbett, marketing director at the Waterville Valley Resort in New Hampshire, which was hit by rain showers on Wednesday. “We’re getting damp, wet weather today. We will put the mountain back together.

Skier Marcus Caston was soaked but shrugged it off. “The conditions are actually pretty good. The rain makes the snow nice and soft. It’s a lot of fun,” he said while skiing at Sugarbush in Vermont.

New England wasn’t the only region experiencing wild weather. Heavy snow was expected through Thursday in parts of Michigan, along the Lake Michigan shoreline, and dangerous cold gripped parts of the Upper Midwest.

But New England’s weather brought the most variety, with the storm bringing a little bit of everything. It started early Wednesday with freezing rain. Then came a deluge of regular rain and warming temperatures—over 50 degrees Fahrenheit in Portland, for example.

Alex Hobbs, a student from Boston, hoped the weather wouldn’t affect her plans to return to San Francisco soon. “I’m a little worried that there could be delays due to high winds and rain, possibly snow,” she said Wednesday.

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Associated Press writers Lisa Rathke in Waitfield, Vermont, Michael Casey in Boston and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this story.