Much of the power grid has to be replaced. The people most affected by the storm were those in urban areas who lost power for up to 8 days. These homes depend on electricity for heat, and by the second day, it was rather frosty to be indoors. Communities were quick to set up shelters which many people used to get warm, and have a hot meal. The other group that was severely impacted was the dairy farmers.
Cows have to be milked each day.
No power meant no milking machines, no milk pumps and no water pumps. Most of the milk processing plants were down, so thousands of gallons of milk had to be dumped. There were some fatalities during the storm, a few from hypothermia and a few from carbon monoxide poisoning. The carbon monoxide deaths were often a result of running a generator in a garage attached to the house or operating appliances, such as kerosene heaters, indoors without opening a window for ventilation. For the most part the storm brought out the best in people.