Today's storm poses new concerns for the power companies.
As a nor'easter is poised to dump snow today on the Lehigh Valley and northwest New Jersey, Met-Ed is preparing to restore power to the final few hundred customers still impacted by Superstorm Sandy, a spokesman said.
Outages are far more severe in Hunterdon and Warren counties, but still somewhat improved in the past 24 hours, according to JCP&L
figures. As of this morning, 8,989 customers were still in the dark in
Warren County, down from 11,206 in the past 24 hours, while Hunterdon
County still had 14,481 out, down from 17,478.
A JCP&L
spokesman couldn't be immediately reached to see if the company can
still meet its pledge to restore power within seven to 10 days. If you
count Oct. 30 as the first day of restoration, today is the ninth day of
work.
Phillipsburg still has 248 customers out, down from 549, while Mansfield Township changed little from Tuesday, going from 1,261 to 1,203.
An entrance gate to Gateway Terrace Apartments in Palmer Township was damaged by a tree during Superstorm Sandy.
Met-Ed had more than 1,200 customers without power this morning, but only about 200 of them were from the original storm, spokesman Scott Surgeoner said. Each of those outages has a crew assigned, he said.
Parts of the Gateway Terrace Apartments in Palmer Township, out for more than a week, got back power on Tuesday evening, a resident said this morning. At least one building remained in the dark.
The other 1,000 or so customers are new outages, Surgeoner said, which is not unusual in the daily routine of the power company, he said.
Upper Mount Bethel Township has the highest number of outages at the moment in the county, at 502. Palmer Township still had 129 out this morning, followed by Easton (113) and Bushkill Township (100).
Asked if the snow will slow the crews, Surgeoner enthusiastically said, "Yes, we will work," adding that it's all part of the restoration process.
As for today's storm, Surgeoner said trees falling on lines is the leading cause of power outages in Pennsylvania and he can't be certain the degree of fatigue in trees that survived Sandy. But there are a lot of factors that could dictate how severe the outages are from the new storm, he said.
"Is it a heavy, wet snow?" he said. "Are there leaves on the trees? Two to five inches with no leaves on the trees we should be able to handle, but you never know."
A year ago, an eight-inch snowfall fall over Halloween weekend with leaves still on the trees caused serious outages.
While Surgeoner can't set a specific number on when or if the power company won't have any outages, he said, "it varies day to day and weather plays a key role. ... .We are very close to the endpoint for those impacted by Sandy."
Find outages in your area:
Check here for a map of outages in Northampton and Bucks counties from Met-Ed.
Check here for a listing of outages in Lehigh and Northampton counties from PPL.
Check here for a map of New Jersey outages from JCP&L.