Nor'easter deals Pa. a glancing blow after Sandy

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A little more than a week after managing to avoid the worst that Superstorm Sandy had to offer, Pennsylvania was dealt a glancing blow by a nor'easter that moved up the coast overnight.

Philadelphia's northern suburbs got the worst of the snow Wednesday night, seeing at least two inches in Langhorne, Bucks County. The city itself got a trace as snow mixed with rain.

Transportation officials had kept a wary eye on the storm in Sandy's wake, but major roadways were clear as of Thursday morning following some slippery conditions overnight.

The wintry storm added slightly to the difficulty for utility companies just recovering from record outages brought by Sandy. FirstEnergy and PPL reported a total of 415 customers without power early Thursday, and Peco reported only scattered outages.

Windy conditions could persist Thursday with gusts up to 30 mph, the National Weather Service said.

Peco said it had finished restoring power to suburban Philadelphia customers knocked out by Sandy, the worst storm in terms of outages in the company's history.

Officials bracing for the storm Wednesday were worried it could compound the problems caused by Sandy, which forced hundreds of road closures in addition to record outages.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation geared up more than 2,000 trucks but officials there expected the storm to be routine.

About 10 percent of flights at Philadelphia International Airport were canceled Wednesday, mostly due to the high winds that can impact the smaller planes used on regional flights.