Tuesday Sandy Update: Power Outages Hit 1.3 Million Pennsylvanians; Philadelphia Refineries Ramping Back Up

• Scott Detrow
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.
  
  Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.
  
  Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

At 9 AM Tuesday, 1.3 million Pennsylvanians are without power.
More than 7 million people in Sandy’s path have lost power. 3 million of them are in New Jersey, according to the Inquirer.
Public Utility Commission Chair Rob Powelson said “diminishing winds provide an opportunity” for utility crews to begin repair work, but cautioned it still might take several days for power to be restored. “We all have to be patient,” he said. “This storm has had a profound impact on the utility situation of Pennsylvania.”
406,000 PPL customers have lost power, as have 264,000 FirstEnergy customers. PECO says less than 50,000 customers remain without power in each of its southeastern Pennsylvania counties: Philadelphia, Chester, Delaware, Bucks and Montgomery.
Some good news from Governor Tom Corbett: Philadelphia’s refineries continued operating at a reduced capacity through Monday night, and are beginning to ramp up gasoline production. “They survived without any problem,” Corbett said, “and are going back online.”
Limerick Generating Station in Chester County had to ramp down its voltage during the storm, but remained operational.

Editor's Picks