Storm Is Over, But Area Still in a State of Emergency

Power outages persist in wake of Wednesday's ice storm.

Let’s get the basic stuff out of the way: Philadelphia schools are back in session today. City Hall is on its normal schedule. SEPTA is up and running—mostly. But Wednesday’s ice storm is still a disaster for the region. 

CBS Philly:

Governor Tom Corbett Wednesday night signed a disaster emergency proclamation in response to this week’s devastating storm.

During a mid-evening briefing, Governor Corbett said 500 members of the National Guard were ready to respond, with nearly 300 already listed on active duty. The governor said he also declared a disaster emergency.  About 586,000 customers were without power, down from a peak of 849,000.

6ABC:

PECO was reporting about 483,827 customers were without power by Wednesday night.

Most of those outages were reported in Chester, Montgomery and Bucks counties.

A PECO spokesperson said on Action News that some customers could be without power for days, and some could even be without power into the weekend.

6ABC also offers a list of Red Cross warming shelters, designed to be a “last resort” for families without power

In the meantime, yes, another storm could be on the way. NewsWorks reports:

Forecasters are monitoring another potential winter storm for late Saturday into Sunday, but it won’t be the blockbuster system that has been hyped since last week.

“Like any winter storm, we have to worry about the potential for snow, ice and rain. Right now, the weekend storm looks less threatening than the 6+ inch snowstorm we had Monday, and the major ice storm we had last night,” abriefing released by the National Weather Service office in Mount Holly, NJ Wednesday afternoon advises.

The National Weather Service will release additional details on the weekend threat on Thursday.