Storm leaves 244,000 in dark, shuts Buckeye pipeline in Pennsylvania

Reuters

(Reuters) - Over 244,000 homes and businesses in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states remained without power on Wednesday after severe thunderstorms rolled through the region overnight. Buckeye Partners LP, a U.S. petroleum pipeline operator, said in a notice to shippers that its Laurel refined products pipeline from Boothwyn, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, was shut due to a power failure. Officials at Buckeye were not immediately available for comment. Exelon Corp's PECO utility in the Philadelphia area said it expected to restore power to the Buckeye pipeline in about three hours. Exelon said the storm affected about 260,000 customers and the company expects to restore power to most of the 43,000 still without service on Wednesday and Thursday. PECO, however, said that some customers in the hardest-hit areas may have to wait until Friday for power to be restored. The following lists outages by utility: Power Company State Out Now National Grid NY 43,800 Exelon - PECO PA 43,500 FirstEnergy WV 38,700 FirstEnergy PA 27,300 FirstEnergy MD 24,800 PPL PA 19,800 Iberdrola - NYSEG NY 12,600 Exelon - BGE MD 12,500 PSEG NJ 6,200 FirstEnergy NJ 3,700 Pepco - Pepco DC, MD 3,500 Iberdrola - RG&E NY 3,200 AEP - Appalachian VA, WV 2,000 Green Mountain Power VT 1,300 Pepco - Delmarva DE, MD 1,200 Total 244,100 (Reporting by Scott DiSavino and Robert Gibbons in New York; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)