A cemetery in Jaffrey, N.H., is seen last week after a devastating ice storm. Utility officials trying to recover from the ice storm in the Northeast warned there could be more outages Sunday as drooping branches shed ice and snapped back to their original positions, potentially taking out more power lines.

Joined by people seeking shelter from the bitter cold, parishioners at the Jaffrey Bible Church on Sunday in Jaffrey, N.H., thanked God for a warm place to sleep and for the utility crews struggling to repair power lines snapped by New England’s devastating ice storm.

“Your fellow Jaffrey residents have stepped up and made this a more bearable situation,” Walt Pryor, recreation department director for the town of 5,700, told the congregation Sunday morning.

Church administrator Rick Needham noted the “terrible devastation in our lives and homes,” recognizing two families whose homes were damaged by falling trees. About 150 people attended Sunday’s service in Jaffrey, about 15 miles from the Massachusetts state line.

The church had been turned into a shelter, with cots and mattresses set up in offices and hallways, and televisions and 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles for children in the basement. Donated food was plentiful, including lobster casserole, pot roast, and barbecued chicken.

The ice storm knocked out electrical service to 1.4 million homes and businesses late last week. More than 570,000 customers still lacked power Sunday afternoon in upstate New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. Utilities in hardest-hit New Hampshire said power might not be totally restored to the region until Thursday or Friday.

Officials warned power failures could rise again as drooping branches shed ice and snapped back to their original positions, potentially taking out more power lines.

In the northern Plains, blizzard conditions made travel hazardous Sunday as officials closed major highways and urged people to stay home.

The National Weather Service estimated as much as 13 inches of snow had fallen at Williston, N.D., and about a foot in Bismarck, N.D., and strong wind whipped the powdery snow and cut visibility.

Bismarck’s temperature at 1 p.m. was minus 8 degrees, but the wind made it feel more like minus 35, Weather Service meteorologist Patrick Ayd said.

“You need two parkas,” he said.

In Fargo, the Cass County sheriff’s office said visibility was down to zero with heavy drifting on the roads.

North Dakota officials said a 200-mile stretch of Interstate 94 was closed from Jamestown to Alexandria, Minn., along with the entire stretch of I-29 in the state from the South Dakota border to Canada. A section of I-29 north of Brookings, S.D., also was closed late Sunday morning.

President Bush declared a state of emergency for New Hampshire and nine of Massachusetts’ 14 counties, directing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide relief assistance.