More than 715,000 without power in US from Northeast storms: DOE

Washington (Platts)--8Nov2012/1121 am EST/1621 GMT

Even after a week of repairs to the electricity grid in the US Northeast in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the number of customers without power inched back up Thursday morning as another storm bringing rain, wet snow and high winds hit the area, the US Department of Energy said.

About 715,205 customers were without power across seven states as of 9 a.m. EST Thursday, resulting from Sandy and the nor'easter that swept through late Wednesday, DOE said. That is up from 650,416 customers without power -- stemming from Hurricane Sandy -- the department reported early Wednesday.

Among the states affected, New Jersey, with 396,777 still without power, has the highest number of outages.

New York also was hit hard, with 285,354 outages remaining, according to the DOE. That is up more than 40,000 from just before the nor'easter hit Wednesday. Other states have also seen outages from the nor'easter, including Connecticut with 1,149 customers still out of power, Massachusetts with 11,595, Rhode Island with 4,671.

Some states, however, have been making overall progress in reducing the number of outages. West Virginia has 15,659 customers still without power.

Last week Hurricane Sandy brought hurricane-force winds and flooding to coastal states and more than three feet of snow to the mountainous areas of West Virginia. More than a dozen eastern and Midwest states in the path of Sandy formally declared states of emergency. The storm saw sustained winds of 95 mph, and massive damage across New Jersey and New York City.

The department said that at the peak of outages stemming from Sandy last week, more than 8.5 million customers were without power across 21 states. A total of 92,419 customers have seen outages from the nor'easter, DOE said.

--Derek Sands, derek_sands@platts.com --Edited by Jeff Barber, jeff_barber@platts.com