PPL: Restoring power after Irene a 'multi-day" effort

Tens of thousands of residents remain without power Sunday and could remain in the dark for several days as utility crews rush to repair what they say is one of the worst storms to hit the area in the past 20 years.

At the peak of the outages Sunday afternoon, about 53,000 Met-Ed and PPL customers in Monroe and Pike counties were without power. By 5 p.m., that number dropped to 40,000.

“We are looking at a multiple day restoration process,” said PPL Electric Utilities spokesman Kurt Blumenau. “We are also not issuing localized restoration times because we are still getting our arms around how much damage is out there.”

At 10 a.m., about 200,000 PPL customers were without power throughout the company's 29-county service territory, including more than 25,000 customers in Lancaster and Berks counties and more than 17,000 in the Harrisburg and Cumberland Valley area.

In a statement, PPL said Irene will rank among one of the worst storms to hit its service area in the past 20 years.
Met-Ed had more than 150,000 residents across Pennsylvania without power Sunday afternoon.

“Since the winds are still kicking up, the potential for additional outages remains, but we have more than 3,000 people out working to restore power in Pennsylvania and New Jersey,” said Met-Ed spokesman Scott Surgeoner.

Conditions like downed trees and overflowing streams and creeks made it impossible for utilities crews to quickly reach some areas, Surgeoner said.

Thar She Blew: Hurricane Irene Leaves Millions In The Dark

A typical scene. A downed tree in coastal Massachusetts. Power might not be restored to southern New England until the end of the week, according to power company National Grid.


The East Coast was long overdue for a hurricane, and they got it.

The biggest Eastern hurricane of the decade, according to meteorologists from Atlanta to Boston, finally weakened early Sunday morning as it made land fall in southern New England after soaking New York. Power outages and transportation delays promise to make for a slow recovery to business as usual on Monday. A number of schools are already delaying the first day of classes, scheduled for Monday in Providence, Rhode Island’s capital city. New York city airports will resume operations later in the day, so Monday morning business travel will be delayed.

Heavy rain hit coastal Massachusetts first at 01:00 and then remained calm for two more hours before another downpour hit the south around 03:00. Strong winds arrived by 05:30, enough to knock out power before most people got out of bed Sunday morning.

Winds were coming in around 55 miles per hour in southern Massachusetts, with the heaviest winds along Horseneck Beack, Newport and Westerly, RI on the Conn border. By the time Hurricane Irene hit New England, it had already weakened to a tropical storm, which is what locals were expecting by Saturday. Still, 50mph sustained winds is enough to break tree limbs and cause coastal flooding, other than knocking out power.

Several people did not take their boats out off the water at the Westerly Yacht Club, which was flooded by early morning and being bombarded with heavy rain, high winds and even a tornado warning. The warning was lifted around 10:20. Local beach bars along Misquamicut Beach saw roof damage at the outset of the storm.

Over 147,000 people had lost power by 09:45 in Rhode Island and 40,000 in Massachusetts with electric power officials saying that number would triple before the end of the day. Working conditions for power companies was difficult due to high winds early in the day, according to National Grid. Later in the day, Massachusetts residents without power rose to 400,000 due to power line damage.

Hurricane barriers from Narragansett to Providence were all closed with no flooding reported in the city, but numerous trees were down throughout southern New England, blocking the roads. “It doesn’t take much for a tree full of wet leaves to go over in 40 mile an hour winds,” said RI meteorologist Steve Caccione.

Mike Lewis, direct of the RI Department of Transportation, told people to stay off the roads, especially off the high Newport and Jamestown bridges. The bridges were open, but covered in fog. Several large trees have been knocked down in Newport. Wind gusts were reported as high as 70 mph.

Dave Samuel, WPRO 630 AM radio meteorologist, said the storm will likely subside by early evening. The bulk of the storm is west of coastal New England. Sunny and dry weather is forecast for the next four days with temperatures in the high 70s, Samuel said.

The bulk of Irene’s rain and wind will be felt in western New England, far from the coasts and major cities, but enough to cause travel disruptions and make it that much longer before power is restored statewide in the region, National Grid spokesman said.

On Saturday in Newport, RI, surfers were out in full force as eight foot swells rolled in after noon. Police and fire officials monitored the coastline all day, and shortly after 18:00 police and fire officials ordered a mandatory evacuation of the seaside resort town by midnight.

In New York, water had started flowing into lower Manhattan by 09:30 from the East River and flowing towards Wall Street. Three million customers from North Carolina to Connecticut are without power, ABC News Radio reported.

The East Coast will be open for business on Monday, but not everyone will be back to work.

The storm is likely not to go down as one of the most vicious in the northeast and in New England in particular. However, it will take days for business to get back to normal due to transportation and airport shut downs since Saturday, and power outages across the area.

Further south, in Nags Head, North Carolina, Anne Compton of ABC News said Sunday on ABC affiliate WPRO that, “The evacuation took tremendous pressure off the first responders here. The roads are empty of tourists,” she said.

Irene: Hurricane Storm Tracker and Weather Channel Overload?

Storm tracker: Sites for following hurricanes
http://cnet.co/nrs9Ip

ATLANTA, GA - Finding a balance between getting information out in order to warn people and giving too much information is a fine line that modern media corporations need to walk during large events like Hurricane Irene. With too much hype, hysteria in NYC, Philadelphia and Jersey may be the result. On the other hand, with too little preparation, lots of people can get into trouble.

Hurricane Katrina is still on the minds of many people. The federal government has ran tests preparing for an event such as this, and warning the public is probably one of the best things that can be done so that people prepare. That is, unless they go overboard and people begin to panic and go into a frenzy.

With mass transportation being shut down in New York City this weekend, it is obvious that the government at all levels is taking Hurricane Irene seriously. That is not to say that Fox News, The Weather Channel and other news and information outlets may have hyped the storm a bit too much. With the storm still heading inland and the weekend not over yet, the nation hopes it's not that bad but are ready if it is.

From social networks like Facebook, Google+ and Twitter to new technologies like texting and email, it has never been easier to keep in touch - when the power stays on. While the storm crawls up the east coast, many people are hoping that the damage is not too bad. Preparation is good and there is something to be said about getting the information out days before the storm hit.

Governor Christie telling people to "get the hell off the beach" was played over and over Friday by The Weather Channel and other news organizations.

In a way, Governor Christie summed up the feeling of many people who were watching people at the beach in New York enjoying a wonderful Friday afternoon.

The New Yorker asked residents to make sure they are prepared, but turn off the Weather Channel and make sure they aren't caught up in the hype.

As the storm continues to do real damage to property along the coast line, the preparations and warnings will be put to the test as America faces a large weather event.

Irene slams N.C. coast ; N.J braces for flooding from Cat 1 storm

Hurricane Irene slammed into North Carolina Saturday morning near Cape Lookout with winds clocking 90 mph after battering the Carolina coast.

The storm blew a large tree limb onto a Nashville, N.C., man, killing him, officials said. Nashville is 150 miles inland from Nags Head, N.C., on the coastal Outer Banks.

Meanwhile, thousands of people have lost power as the storm heads up the East Coast. Shortly after Irene made landfall near Cape Lookout, N.C., forecasters said Irene’s winds had dropped to 85 mph.

---For live updates, go to:
http://topics.gannett.com/hurricaneupdates/?template=thetowntalk

Bearing down on New Jersey
Hurricane Irene, now a Category 1 storm, is expected to pass very close to the New Jersey coast late tonight into Sunday morning, with gusts to 80 mph, dangerous flooding and severe beach erosion expected, according to the National Weather Service.

“I think there’s still a formidable coastal threat,” said David A. Robinson, the New Jersey state climatologist at Rutgers University. “There’s certainly (a) formidable wind threat, and I’m absolutely concerned about inland flooding.”

The storm is expected to be almost at Sandy Hook by 8 a.m. Sunday, meaning it will be moving faster than forecast Friday, he said.

That means the tide will be rising as the hurricane is coming up the coast, with winds shifting to the northwest in South Jersey by high tide, he said.

“So it’s probably better news for South Jersey than North Jersey,” he said. The timing now is “certainly not favoring the north Jersey coast,” he said.

Meanwhile, a tornado watch is in effect until 8 p.m. today in Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and Salem counties, according to the weather service.

Isolated tornadoes are possible near the coast and on the Delmarva Peninsula through this evening, according to the weather service.

Residents are being told to get out of low-lying bayside neighborhoods in the southernmost Ocean County towns of Eagelswood, Tuckerton and Little Egg Harbor, along with neighboring Bass River.