WeatherFanatics: More Than Half a Million Still Without Power Ahead of Weekend Snow

Thursday, February 6, 2014

More Than Half a Million Still Without Power Ahead of Weekend Snow

By Samantha-Rae Tuthill, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer

February 6,2014; 4:15PM,EST

After more than a foot of snow and accumulating ice hit much of the Northeast, more than 540,000 are still without power in the mid-Atlantic.
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Between three service providers in Pennsylvania, PPL Electric, FirstEnergy and PECO, more than 420,000 customers were listed without power as of late Thursday morning. The highest concentration of power outages were in the southeastern part of the state.

Ice and snow knocked down trees and power lines across the mid-Atlantic earlier this week. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Maryland's Baltimore Gas and Electric reported more than 48,800 without power for the state. New York City area outages top 2,000, with a few hundred outages across portions of New Jersey as well.
Despite the high number of customers still without power, tens of thousands have already been restored since yesterday. Most of the New Jersey FirstEnergy outages are expected to be restored Thursday afternoon. Con Edison in New York expects the power to return by 7 p.m. EST Friday for most of its customers.
According to PECO's Debra Yemenijian, parts of southeastern Pennsylvania, however, may be without power until Sunday.
"We're restoring [power] to as many customers as soon as possible," she said. "Most should have their power back by Friday night."
According to PECO, this storm was the second-worst in company history, topped only by Sandy. They cited the ice, snow and freezing rain as the causes for downed power lines and trees, as well as damages to equipment. The company's emergency response system has been activated.
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Companies from other states, including Arkansas, Massachusetts, Illinois and even New Brunswick, Canada, will be traveling to the affected areas to help with restoration efforts. Yemenijian said that 3,500 workers are currently handling restoration efforts.
Incoming storms this weekend could further complicate conditions, however. While the next rounds of snow will not be as heavy as earlier this week, slick road conditions and falling snow could create challenges for traveling utility crews.
Cold weather will be a concern for powerless homes this weekend. The overnight low temperatures for the Philadelphia area will be below freezing. With winds and other factors, AccuWeather RealFeel® temperatures could be as low as 12 degrees.

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