U.S. Northeast digs out from blizzard, tornado strikes in South CAMBRIDGE, Mass./NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Northeast was digging out on Sunday after a blizzard dumped up to 40 inches (one meter) of snow with hurricane force winds, killing at least nine people and leaving hundreds of thousands without power. As the Northeast cleared roads and shoveled out, another storm bore down on the Northern Plains and tornadoes threatened the Southeast in a weekend of extreme weather across the United States. A tornado which appeared to be a mile wide touched down in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, causing significant damage, said Anna Weber of the National Weather Service. The twister also hit the nearby town of Petal where it destroyed a brick building. In New York City trucks plowed through residential streets, piling snow even higher at the edges and leaving thousands of motorists to dig out their buried vehicles. Another round of severe weather on Monday could bring more misery, with freezing rain and more snow predicted that would make the evening commute even more difficult. In Boston, Mayor Tom Menino canceled school on Monday after touring neighborhoods throughout the city, where two feet of snow fell. Air traffic began to return to normal after some 5,800 flights were canceled on Friday and Saturday, according to Flightaware, a flight-tracking service. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, residents were digging out their cars and driveways under clear blue skies on Sunday afternoon. South Dakota was expected to be hardest hit, with winds seen reaching 50 miles per hour (80 kmph), which would create white-out conditions. The mammoth storm over the weekend stretched from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic and covered several spots in the Northeast with more than 3 feet of snow. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said 675 pieces of equipment and 975 personnel had been dispatched to help Suffolk County, making up the eastern half of Long Island, dig out of 3 feet of snow. The storm "effectively shut down the entire region," Cuomo said in a statement. Amtrak ran a limited train service between New York and Boston on Sunday and a regular Sunday schedule from New York to the state capital in Albany. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority said it had resumed limited service on Sunday afternoon and would return to regular service on Monday. The storm dropped 31.9 inches of snow on Portland, Maine, creating "whiteout conditions," said city spokeswoman Nicole Clegg, 42. It's the biggest I've seen since I was a little girl. Clegg said most city roads had been cleared by Sunday night, and city employees were set to begin plowing Portland's "100 miles of sidewalks." Winds gusted to 83 miles per hour (134 kmph) at Cuttyhunk, New York, and brought down trees across the region. The engine was running but the exhaust was blocked by snow, said authorities. In Rutland, Vermont, the snow helped solve a crime, said Rutland police Sergeant James Tarbell. After a burglar alarm went off at a gas station in the small hours of the morning, police found a broken window and discovered someone had stolen cartons of cigarettes, said Tarbell. A trail of footprints in the snow led the police to a nearby street, where they found a 42-year old man shoveling snow. "It was an ungodly hour to be shoveling snow," Tarbell said. Police arrested the man and found A duffel bag full of cigarettes on the front porch of the house. Additional reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Wisconsin, Tim McLaughlin and Scott Malone in Boston, Kevin Gray in Miami, Ellen Wulfhorst, Edith Honan and Chris Francescani in New York, Ian Simpson in Washington, Jason McLure in Maine, Dan Burns in Connecticut and Zach Howard in Massachusetts; Writing by David Bailey; Editing by Corrie MacLaggan, Philip Barbara and Christopher Wilson