(Photo by JEFFREY HASTINGS) Road crews brought out the heavy equipment to conquer the heavy snowfall that the Nor'easter brought to New England. These crews used road graders to keep South Willow Street open in Manchester.

The roughly 20,000 power outages reported across the state this morning have more than tripled in the last few hours, as the heavy, wet snow continues to fall amid the onset of gusty winds.

In Nashua, Public Works director Lisa Fauteux announced a snow emergency will be in effect beginning at 10 p.m. tonight through 6 a.m. tomorrow. During that time frame, no street or municipal lot parking will be allowed, and the overnight parking program will be suspended, Fauteux said.

The duration of the snow emergency may be adjusted if weather conditions change.

Free parking will be available in the Elm Street and High Street garages, and residents may park in the garages from now until the emergency ends.

Fauteux reminded residents that the city will be towing vehicles that remain parked on streets and municipal lots during the snow emergency.

(Photo by JEFFREY HASTINGS) A truck that went off Route I93 in Londonderry this morning lies on its side as police await a tow. Similar scenes played out across the region throughout the day.

Owners of towed vehicles may retrieve their cars at the Four Hills Landfill scale house anytime during the emergency. Owners must pay a fine of $315 with cash, money order or credit card only.

Once the emergency has been lifted, cars may be picked up between 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. at the landfill.

As for power outages, the online outage map provided by Eversource — which serves the vast majority of New Hampshire electric customers — showed Nashua had just over 400 outages, less than 1 percent of the city’s 43,500 customers.

Four percent of Hudson’s 11,700 customers were out, while Merrimack reported 1,200, or about 9 percent, customers without power as of noon.

As is typical in storms featuring heavy, wet snow and gusty winds, the region’s smaller towns were hardest hit. In Brookline, for instance, some 92 percent of its 2,200 Eversource customers were in the dark. Amherst’s outages affected nearly 2,000, or 31 percent, of its customers.

(Photo by JEFFREY HASTINGS) This truck, lying on its side of the Everett Turnpike near Exit 11 in Merrimack was one of many vehicles that went off roadways and in some cases rolling over this morning as the Nor'easter cranked up in intensity throughout the day.

In Hollis, 16 percent of Eversource’s 3,800 customers were out, while Milford reported outages to 14.5 percent of its roughly 8,000 customers.

Nashua officials issued the following storm-related information.

“If you don’t need to be out on the roads, please stay off them for your safety and to make room for equipment working to keep roads open.

“We are recommending residents limit travel if possible. Residents should only expect primary routes to be cleared initially during this storm. Residential side streets will not be plowed immediately. Regularly plowed sidewalks will not be plowed until crews have a chance to clear primary and residential streets.”

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.