Storm

Hurricane Irene in August racked up some big numbers for Peco Energy Co. The Philadelphia utility on Wednesday told a special Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission forum that the storm damaged 316 poles, 1,509 cross arms, 278 transformers, 90 miles of wire, 5,019 insulators and 11,001 fuses. Peco said more than 511,000 customers lost power: 131,037 in Bucks County; 134,036 in Chester County, 109,392 in Delaware County; 67,899 in Montgomery County, 57,158 in Philadelphia and 11,580 in York County.

A heavy thunderstorm accompanied by high winds roared through the area last night, forcing the closure of a portion of the Blue Route near Conshohocken, felling trees and triggering power outages throughout the region. Montgomery County was hardest hit, with unconfirmed reports of tornadoes in Springfield and Whitemarsh Townships. The storm started west of the Susquehanna Valley around 7 p.m., then quickly spread through Chester County, southern Montgomery County and Philadelphia.

We took a dying Old Man Winter's best shot yesterday and were still on our feet today. Both SEPTA and Shadow Traffic reported few weather-related problems during today's morning rush hour despite yesterday's rain-ice-sleet-snow storm that hit the Delaware Valley with only two weeks left on Old Man Winter's clock. And don't worry if you see a stray flurry or snow shower today or tomorrow, advises Accu-Weather meteorologist Eliot Abrams. It's all uphill from yesterday. There's a chance for another inch of accumulation in remote areas of the Delaware Valley today, under cloudy, windy and bitter, wintry-like cold (high 26)

With Hurricane Gustav veering away from New Orleans, Republicans poised to party at their national convention in the Twin Cities this week were spared a storm of embarrassment on the third anniversary of the Bush administration's deadly mishandling of Hurricane Katrina. Even though Gustav weakened, its initial threat was enough to prevent an unpopular lame-duck from appearing in person at the Republican National Convention. President Bush's absence was better than a sunny forecast for those in the GOP who wanted no reminders of his administration's Katrina blunders.

Icy rain left a decorative coating on trees yesterday in the northern and western suburbs, where the nasty weather provided an early holiday treat for students at about 60 schools that closed or sent children home early. However, the wintry mess came up well short of expectations. And it might be a preview of the weekend, when another ballyhooed storm might fail to live up to its billing, at least around here. In the meantime, a major weather event is expected today, especially for the Vitamin D deficient - the reappearance of the sun. In a month that is light-deprived in any given year, this one has been 75 percent cloud-covered, according to National Weather Service data.

When Hurricane Hugo rocked tiny St. Croix, U.S. District Judge Stanley Brotman's focus shifted from trying cases to trying to survive. Brotman, a federal judge in Camden since 1975, had been in St. Croix since Sept. 14 to preside over several criminal and civil matters. But when Hugo hit there Tuesday, Brotman found himself presiding over about 18 frightened people huddled in the bedroom of a golf course condo. "We didn't expect the storm to be that severe," a weary Brotman said last night, hours after returning to Camden from the devastated island.

A drenching storm with high winds swept through the region yesterday, flooding roads, downing trees and wires, delaying air travel, and forcing a high school's evacuation. After winds were blamed for overturning one tractor-trailer on the Walt Whitman Bridge yesterday morning, the units were banned on several spans. Gusts hit 62 m.p.h. about 9:30 a.m. at Philadelphia International Airport, according to the National Weather Service. When tiles and insulation blew off a roof at Washington Township High School in Gloucester County and water started pouring in about 11:30 a.m., the fire marshal ordered students and staff out of the building.

First battered by winds, then ripped by the ocean, a stretch of the New Jersey Shore is now choking on the stench of 150,000,000 dying clams - the aromatic aftermath of this month's devastating coastal storm. And folks from Longport to Atlantic City are raising their own stink about the millions of unwanted guests who have overstayed their welcome. After the Jan. 4 storm that crashed over the Shore, beaches on Absecon Island were knee-deep in clams, most very much alive. For the first week, the shellfish merely posed an aesthetic problem.

AS THE POCONO Raceway staff sorts through the issues from the lightning strike that killed one fan and injured nine others last Sunday, two questions are at the forefront: Did the raceway staff do all it could to alert the fans that a severe thunderstorm would be menacing the racetrack area? Should NASCAR have stopped the race before the storm lashed the Long Pond area, giving fans more time to exit the grandstands? Brian Zimmerman, 41, of Moosic, died after he was struck by lightning as he and friends were sitting in a tent near their cars in the parking area behind the grandstands.

Robin Bailey had hoped to stretch her Memorial Day weekend into today, spending time with her family and walking her black Labrador along the sandy beaches of Ocean City, N.J. Those plans changed yesterday in a flash. A flash and a very loud boom. Shortly before 9 a.m., with Bailey away at the Shore, a bolt of lightning hit the red brick chimney atop her two-story house in the 100 block of Field Terrace in Montgomery Township. The lightning started a fire that damaged much of the top floor.