Power Outages

Every day since superstorm Sandy buzzsawed through the Philadelphia region the number of power outages has declined. Tomorrow could show an increase, especially in New Jersey, because of a new storm, a nor'easter expected to bring high winds and, along the I-95 corridor, up to 5 inches of snow. Pennsylvania's in pretty good shape. Fewer than 100 Peco customers are still without electricity - out of a record-busting 850,000 homes and businesses knocked off-line. "We feel like we'll be in good shape to handle this storm," said spokeswoman Karen Muldoon Geus.

NEW ORLEANS - Tens of thousands of customers remained in the dark Monday in Louisiana and Mississippi, nearly a week after Isaac inundated the Gulf Coast with a deluge that still has some low-lying areas under water. Most of those were in Louisiana, where utilities reported more than 100,000 people without power. Thousands also were without power in Mississippi and Arkansas. In Louisiana, many evacuees remained at shelters or bunked with friends or relatives. "My family is split up," said Angela Serpas, from severely flooded Braithwaite in Plaquemines Parish.

Peco Energy Co. is reporting an "issue with underground cables" near Lancaster Avenue and Rittenhouse Place in Lower Merion. Peco workers are on site, and the utility company is assembling more specialized crews to assess the damage. Peco will have to cut off electricity before workers can go underground safely, company spokesman Ben Armstrong said. "The insulation around the cables could be heating up and causing the manhole to smoke," Armstrong said. "You could be seeing smoke coming from the manhole.

A storm packing 75 m.p.h. winds tore into the Philadelphia area last night, uprooting trees, damaging buildings and taking down power lines, interrupting service to thousands. The National Weather Service, which began issuing warnings in the area shortly after 5 p.m., referred to the violent weather as a line of severe thunderstorms. The rapidly moving storm front proceeded at speeds as high as 50 m.p.h. from the Ohio Valley to Connecticut. Little thunder and lightning were experienced in the Philadelphia area, and rainfall was scattered and minimal, according to a weather service spokesman.

It may not be until Sunday or Monday that everyone in the region finally sees the light. The numbers keep dwindling, down to about 15,000 homes and business without power early this morning in eastern Pennsylvania. Saturday's freakishly heavy snowstorm kicked nearly a million Peco, PPL Electric and Met Ed customers off the grid. So some 985,000 have been restored. But you can bet griping was still going on this morning in Bucks County's Nockamixon Township, and Reading, Birdsboro, Fleetwood and Mohnton in Berks - all served by Met Ed - as well as in Lehigh County's Lower Macungie Township, served by PPL Electric.

After an afternoon high of 68 - just two degrees shy of the record for the date set in 1947 - the Philadelphia area faces heavy rain and high winds tonight, raising the possibility of some power outages, flash flooding and flight delays. Temperatures should then drop drastically, with overnight lows in the 20s Thursday night, when a chance of light snow continues into Friday morning. Some morning commutes might be messy the next two days for very different reasons. Today's rain could start in the city by early evening, becoming likely by 8 p.m. "A substantial squall line will probably cross the area between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. and thunderstorms may be embedded in this line," according to a National Weather Service flood watch issued for Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Yesterday, the trees were not your friend. Ice-crusted limbs were the culprits that took out power lines throughout the Philadelphia region, causing about 100,000 homes in the Pennsylvania suburbs to lose power at the peak of yet another major wintry blast. By the time the assault of freezing rain let up amid rising temperatures by the middle of the day, Amtrak's busy Northeast Corridor service between Philadelphia and New York had been knocked out for a time, and more than 100 suburban districts canceled yet another school day. But the biggest lasting local impact from the outer edge of the same 2,000-mile monster storm that caused a blizzard in Chicago and ripped apart the roof of fabled Wrigley Field were the widespread power outages - some of which lasted into today.

Power outages are rites of spring around here, but this time, even Peco was in the dark. There was no thunder, no high winds, no lightning, no car smashing into a utility pole. Yet somehow, six Delaware County homes had lost power. Peco was mystified, until an investigation revealed a surprising, and creepy, answer: Call it vege-terrorism. A renegade vine had crept up a utility pole - a good 35 feet straight up - worked its way onto a power line, and tripped the wire.

Steve Ward of North Jersey paid $167 at a Morrisville gas station Friday to fill up the tank of his minivan and a half-dozen containers. Dennis Kagen couldn't care less about the price as he waited to gas up his truck at the crowded Turkey Hill station in Ottsville, Upper Bucks County. "It doesn't even matter at this point. If you can get it, you get it," said Kagen, who lives about 15 miles east, across the Delaware River in Stockton, N.J. Both men considered themselves lucky to be working in Pennsylvania, where they avoided the hours-long lines and heated confrontations over gas that Sandy has produced in their home state since Monday.

Brrrrrrr . . . Pull out the long sleeves and blankets and prepare for a real fall preview. Much like the storm that blasted through our area yesterday afternoon, the weather will take a sharp turn starting today. Thanks to a cold front from Canada, our days and nights will get much cooler. "Basically what we had happen was a very strong cold front across the region and a low pressure system moving along the cold front to help move that storm," said Accu-Weather meteorologist Mark Tobin.

This is the time of year trees are most appreciated. Streets and parks fill with walkers, joggers, and bicyclists enjoying the transformation from brown to green. Students gather outside their schools to plant saplings. Budding branches everywhere invigorate our senses and lift our souls. Utilitarian entities like power companies, also, should love trees. Cities and towns become heat islands in the summers. Urban temperatures are considerably higher than surrounding suburbs, caused by the thousands of rooftops, jam-packed along miles of streets, interspersed with acres of parking lots, all absorbing the heat of the sun. By cooling the air beneath them, urban trees reduce the need for air conditioning.

America's power grid is like an old car. It gets the job done, but the repair bills go up every year, and experts say only a major overhaul will reverse its decline. An Associated Press analysis of utility spending and reliability nationwide found that electric customers are spending 43 percent more than they did in 2002 to build and maintain local electric infrastructure. Since then, power outages have remained infrequent, but when the lights go out, it takes longer to get them back on. Neither the spending nor the reliability trends is dramatic on its own. But experts say the combination is revealing: It suggests that extra money from electric customers isn't being spent wisely, or that utilities are not investing nearly enough to upgrade fragile equipment increasingly threatened by major storms.

DAMASCUS, Syria - A power outage plunged Damascus and southern Syria into darkness late Saturday, Syria's state news agency said, while anti-regime activists reported a string of tit-for-tat, sectarian kidnappings in the country's north. The news agency, SANA, quoted Electricity Minister Imad Khamis as saying that the failure of a high-voltage line had left the country's south without power. The blackout affected the capital, Damascus, and the southern provinces of Daraa and Sweida, which abut Jordan.

Paul P. Leufkens was chatting Tuesday afternoon in his office at the KEMA-Powertest lab in Chalfont when a blast outside the building shook the walls, and a blinding flash lit up the window. "People sometimes ask if the explosions frighten me," said Leufkens, president of the lab. "Actually, I'm scared when we don't feel these shots. " They get paid to blow things up at KEMA-Powertest, the largest independent high-power electrical-testing facility in America. No explosions means no business.

NEWARK, N.J. - Sandy was the deadliest hurricane to hit the northeastern United States in 40 years and the second costliest in the nation's history, according to a report released Tuesday. The storm's effects reached far and wide, according to the National Hurricane Center report. While Sandy visited devastation on the East Coast, principally New Jersey and New York, it created wind gusts as far west as Wisconsin and as far north as Canada and caused water levels to rise from Florida to Maine, the center found.

After an afternoon high of 68 - just two degrees shy of the record for the date set in 1947 - the Philadelphia area faces heavy rain and high winds tonight, raising the possibility of some power outages, flash flooding and flight delays. Temperatures should then drop drastically, with overnight lows in the 20s Thursday night, when a chance of light snow continues into Friday morning. Some morning commutes might be messy the next two days for very different reasons. Today's rain could start in the city by early evening, becoming likely by 8 p.m. "A substantial squall line will probably cross the area between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. and thunderstorms may be embedded in this line," according to a National Weather Service flood watch issued for Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware.

A CABLE BENEATH 16th and Market streets in Center City began smoking early Wednesday morning, prompting officials who were worried about a separate gas leak to evacuate an apartment building. The 10-story Oakwood Apartments building, at 16th and Sansom, was cleared of its residents, and 16th Street was closed between Chestnut and Walnut streets for much of the morning. Karen Muldoon-Geus, a Peco Energy spokeswoman, said that the incident occurred about 3:30 a.m., when smoke was spotted coming from a manhole.

Peco Energy Co. is reporting an "issue with underground cables" near Lancaster Avenue and Rittenhouse Place in Lower Merion. Peco workers are on site, and the utility company is assembling more specialized crews to assess the damage. Peco will have to cut off electricity before workers can go underground safely, company spokesman Ben Armstrong said. "The insulation around the cables could be heating up and causing the manhole to smoke," Armstrong said. "You could be seeing smoke coming from the manhole.

HARVEY CEDARS, N.J. - After Sandy battered the Jersey Shore's barrier islands last week, Gov. Christie says he's not sure what to expect from a nor'easter that began howling along the coastline this afternoon and may bring more flooding, high winds, additional power outages and even snow to the region. "I'm waiting for the locusts and pestilence next," Christie told a crowd of first responders and media that packed the engine room of the High Point Volunteer Fire House. Christie had been scheduled to tour Long Beach Island to see the progress being made in the cleanup of Sandy and the preparations for this latest storm, but the driving rain and wind canceled those plans.

Every day since superstorm Sandy buzzsawed through the Philadelphia region the number of power outages has declined. Tomorrow could show an increase, especially in New Jersey, because of a new storm, a nor'easter expected to bring high winds and, along the I-95 corridor, up to 5 inches of snow. Pennsylvania's in pretty good shape. Fewer than 100 Peco customers are still without electricity - out of a record-busting 850,000 homes and businesses knocked off-line. "We feel like we'll be in good shape to handle this storm," said spokeswoman Karen Muldoon Geus.