In a winter of superlatives, add this: Wednesday’s ice storm cut power to more than 1 million in the Philadelphia area, with Peco Energy recording a new winter outage record.
Peco reported that about 715,000 homes and businesses lost power during the storm, more than any other in its history except for Superstorm Sandy in October 2012. PPL Electric Utilities Inc. said more than 60,000 customers lost service.
Disaster Declaration
In total, The Philadelphia Inquirer estimated, 1 million to 1.5 million of the 2.5 million residents of Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Bucks counties lost electricity. The White House Thursday declared the region a disaster area, along with adjacent York and Lancaster counties, making residents eligible for aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Three days after the storm, more than 180,000 of Peco’s 1.6 million customers remained without service.
In New Jersey, PSE&G reported 65,000 outages while JCP&L reported a peak of 20,000. AEP Ohio was able to power to all 8,600 customers who lost service by the end of the day.
Calling for Help
Peco called on 4,000 field workers, including contractors and 2,600 linemen borrowed from utilities as far away as Canada and Arkansas. As of yesterday afternoon, Peco was still working to restore service to more than 42,000 customers and said some wouldn’t see service for days. PPL said it had restored power to all but about 600 customers.
About 87% of PECO’s customers lost power in Chester County, where officials set up shelters. To the north, Montgomery County -– home to PJM headquarters — declared a state of emergency after two-thirds of PECO’s customers went dark. (The forecast of freezing rain was enough for PJM to postpone Wednesday’s Market Implementation Committee meeting to Friday.)
Montgomery County’s 911 system had received 4,000 calls between 4 a.m. and mid-afternoon Wednesday, including 340 electrical fires, Fox News’ Philadelphia affiliate reported. The system averages about 2,400 calls a day.
Ice Followed Wet Snow
The ice storm followed a wet snow Monday that had already weighed down branches.
Wednesday day brought scenes of both normalcy and crisis in Chester County. Many roads were closed and some of those that were open remained an obstacle course of downed trees and broken branches.
In Guthriesville, the managers of a powerless Burger King scrambled to load thawing French fries and hamburgers into a rental truck for transfer to a restaurant with power. About 100 yards away, a supermarket remained open thanks to generator power.
In Exton, it was standing room only at the Starbucks, which offered both power and free wifi.
At one table, a manager from Suburban Propane L.P. – whose nearby office had lost power — was calling frantic customers from her cell phone. The fuel for their generators, she assured them, was on its way.
