Thousands Still Without Power

By ASHA BEH and DANIELLE JOHNSON

Updated 4:50 PM EDT, Mon, Mar 15, 2010

Print Share

Chuck

*UPDATE: As of Monday afternoon PECO reported about 5,000 households were still without power, while about 300 households in New Jersey remained without power and just six houses in Delaware.

Blustery winds and drenching rains brought power and transportation problems to Philadelphia area as well as a few evacuations, but the commonwealth was spared the brunt of the storm as widespread flooding feared did not materialize.

About 5,000 customers in the Philly suburbs were without power Sunday morning -- primarily in Bucks and Montgomery counties.

But that number was down significantly from about 32,000 without power in the five-county region Sunday morning, and 85,000 Saturday after power lines were damaged.

“They were damaged mostly by strong winds bringing down trees into our lines,” PECO spokesman Fred Maher said. “The ground was saturated, so the trees didn't need a big push.”

Text PHIWeather to 639710 to get NBC10's daily forecast every morning between 7 and 8 and severe weather alerts.
Standard rates apply.

PECO brought in crews from western Pennsylvania and Michigan to help.

Another 6,000 customers in South Jersey were still without power Monday morning, according to PSE&G.

The utility reported 150,000 outages over the weekend, including more than 10,000 each in Mercer, Middlesex and Bergen counties. Burlington County had between 2,000 and 5,000 outages. The company has provided an Outage Center on its Web site, showing the areas hit.

Atlantic City Electric also provided a look at how the storm affected its customers. On its Storm Center page, the worst areas hit include Tabernacle and Beach Haven. The company reported more than 8,400 without power, down from 21,000 Saturday.

Delmarva seems to have the fewest losses, with fewer than 230 customers reporting power failures as of Sunday at noon. It also has a Storm Center on its Web site to track updates on its service areas.