Crews making headway with power outages
Only about 8,700 businesses and homes remain without electricity in Peco's service area.
Utility crews are making headway restoring power to the remaining homes and businesses that lost electricity after coastal storms last week and Wednesday.
Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses lost power in the two storms, but on Friday morning Peco reported that electricity had been restored to all but about 8,700 customers, about 7,000 of them in Bucks County, which was hard hit by Wednesday's nor'easter. Of the total, fewer than 200 were customers who lost power in last week's storm.
Liz Williamson, a Peco spokeswoman, said the customers who had been without electricity for a week remained a priority and that the company expected all of them to be back on the grid Friday. Most of the remaining 8,500 customers should have power again by Saturday, while a number in areas hard-hit by downed trees and equipment damage should have their electricity restored by Sunday.
In addition to Peco's own crews, more than 2,800 utility workers from a dozen states are working in Peco's service area, Williamson said.
Across the Delaware River, about 6,000 PSE&G and Atlantic City Electric customers had no power Friday morning.
Utilities in the meantime are hoping a coastal storm that is expected to develop Sunday into Monday will head out to sea, as some models indicate.