MANCHESTER - Nearly 175,000 households and businesses had no power Tuesday morning, courtesy of Hurricane Sandy, down from an overnight peak of 200,000, according to the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

James C. Van Dongen, public information officer, said the good news is New Hampshire missed the brunt of the storm in terms of flooding but "we are not out of the woods yet." Flooding could be an issue from the Lakes Region on north, he explained.

It's expected there will be some improvement in the number of power outages, now that the wind has died down and crews can begin repairs.

The outages, he said, are widely scattered across the state and mainly the result of downed trees and wires. Roads are also closed because of flooding and downed trees, including 35 state roads and 199 local roads. The numbers, he noted, will change hourly.

Manchester fared well, according to Police Lt. Maureen Tessier. Overnight, minor flooding was reported on Elm and South Willow streets, while Tuesday morning there was some flooding on Bridge Street, near Trinity High School, and Wellington Road, near the I-93 overpass.

The communities with the most outages, as of 7:30 a.m., include Derry with 7,305; Londonderry, 7.036; Manchester, 6,469; Windham, 4,865; Merrimack, 4,634, and Hudson, 4,428.

A few towns are completely in the dark including Atkinson, Grafton and Hampstead, where 4,335 businesses and residences are without power, that is, unless they have generators.