Friday, November 9, 2012

Sandy, Nor'easter Double Slam Hinders Power Restoration Efforts


By Vickie Frantz, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer
November 9,2012; 8:03PM,EST



The Con Edison company in New York and the Jersey Central Power and Light company in New Jersey were still trying to restore the power outages caused by Sandy when a powerful nor'easter added to the problem.
New York
Heavy snow, rain and strong winds brought down utility poles, power lines and trees in both Suffolk County and Queens County in New York, according to the National Weather Service.
Snowfall totals by Wednesday in New York City had reached 4.7 inches, according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Courtney Spamer. Flushing, located in Queens County, was reporting 7 inches of snow as of 8 a.m. EST Thursday.
Winds gusted to 48 mph in Long Island and 43 mph at LaGuardia Airport, according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Brian Edwards.
In a press release on the website of Con Edison, a New York utility company, they reported that heavy snow and wind from the nor'easter caused an additional 55,000 power outages on top of the 67,000 power outages there were still dealing with due to Sandy.
Repairs to downed lines are being slowed by the high winds in the area.
Another issue for the company is that some of the electrical equipment was so badly damaged by flood waters that it must be replaced before power can be restored to some customers.
Some of the largest areas without power in New York are Queens (21,000 customers), Brooklyn (7,000 customers), Bronx (4,000 customers) and Staten Island (3,900 customers) as of 2:30 a.m. EST Thursday.
AccuWeather Facebook fan Emberdeen F. took this photograph of the snow falling in Piscataway, N.J., on Nov. 7, 2012.
New Jersey
Winds and snow also brought down trees in Monmouth and Ocean counties in New Jersey, according to reports from the NWS. Even some localized road flooding was reported in Ocean County.
Storm snow totals from the nor'easter were impressive in parts of New Jersey.
As of Wednesday, 5.7 inches of snow were reported in Newark, N.J. More than a quarter of an inch of rain followed by 2.5 inches of snow fell in Atlantic City, according to Spamer.
"Winds were brisk, gusting to 31 mph in Trenton and 38 mph in Newark," Edwards said.
The Jersey Central Power and Light company (JCP&L) website reports that 273,762 of their utility customers were still without power as of Thursday afternoon.
There were still 149,000 JCP&L customers still without power when the nor'easter knocked out power to 120,000 more customers.
Two of the largest areas of power outages are Monmouth and Ocean counties. Monmouth County still has about 79,000 people without power; Ocean County has about 88,000 people who have no power.
JCP&L currently has 11,000 workers in the field working to restore power. That total includes 6,000 line workers and 1,500 forestry workers. They are expecting 1,600 more line workers today.
The company states they are unsure if they will be able to make their restoration goals that were set following the outages from Sandy, due to the new outages caused by the nor'easter.

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