Pennsylvania was battered by high winds but escaped major flooding from its heavy rains as a weakened Sandy churned across the state Tuesday.The storm plunged more than a million customers in the dark while leaving a trail of damage that included shore roofs, toppled trees and crushed cars. At least five deaths statewide have been blamed on the hybrid super-storm that walloped the East Coast.Utility crews are surveying the damage and launching a massive repair job to restore power to nearly 1.3 million customers across Pennsylvania.They warn it could take a week or longer to finish.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — PECO Energy, the utility company reporting the most power outages in Pennsylvania, says it expects it could take up to a week to restore power to everyone in the wake of a megastorm moving across the state.
PECO, which serves to 1.6 million customers in Philadelphia and its suburbs, said Tuesday crews will work around the clock. Meanwhile, power outages fell to below 1.2 million people as utilities work to restore service.
That's roughly 20 percent of the state's electric customers. A Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission spokeswoman says the storm is in the top three ever in outages, ranking with hurricanes Agnes in 1972 and Floyd in 1999.
Hardest hit are Bucks, Berks, Chester, Delaware, Lehigh, Monroe, Montgomery and Northampton counties, as well as Philadelphia.
PECO spokeswoman Liz Williamson says the outages are a record for the utility, exceeding the peak of 520,000 during a January 1994 ice storm. She says it has restored power to 230,000 other customers since yesterday
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