Residents in northeastern US warned to plan for extended power outages

Source: Agencies  |   2008-12-14  |     ONLINE EDITION

FALLING temperatures were expected to send more people to shelters in the ice-coated Northeast yesterday as an army of utility crews made only limited progress restoring power to more than 1 million homes and businesses.

"If you don't have power, assume that you will not get it restored today, and right now make arrangements to stay someplace warm tonight," Gov. John Lynch of hardest-hit New Hampshire warned.

Utilities in his state said it likely will be Thursday or Friday -- a week after the storm -- before all power is restored in the region, partly because of the sheer number of outages and partly because of the devastation.

Crews across the region saw electric poles, wires and equipment destroyed. The extent of damage was unclear because some roads still were impassable.

"We'd put one line up, and it seemed like another would break," said Stan Tucker, operations supervisor in Springfield for Central Vermont Public Service Corp. "It seems like every line has multiple problems."

In New York, all but five roads managed by state highway officials had been cleared yesterday.

"Things are much better," Carol Breen of the state Department of Transportation said. "But there are still trees coming down because of ice on branches; they're heavy and they can break at any point."

About 1.3 million homes and businesses from Pennsylvania to Maine were plunged into the dark -- and cold -- by a storm that coated trees and wires with ice Thursday night into Friday. Most of the outages were in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and New York. About 880,000 remained without power Saturday afternoon.

Four states declared either limited or full states of emergency.

At its peak Friday, more than 430,000 customers were without power in New Hampshire, the worst power outage in state history. About 375,000 still were in the dark yesterday afternoon.