Disruption Lingers in Wake of Weekend Storm

By contrast, about 10,000 customers lost power in New Jersey, where more than 20 inches of snow fell, and 33,000 lost power in the Philadelphia area, with a foot of snow.

Some government and utility officials said the snow that fell on the Washington area was relatively wet and heavy, causing tree limbs to hit power lines. But the National Weather Service said the snow was just as wet to the north.

Robert Dobkin, a spokesman for Pepco, which serves about 720,000 electric customers in the District and Maryland, said, "We live in one of the most heaviest forested areas in the East Coast, and our problems were primarily branches or limbs contacting wires, either from falling on them or resting on them."

About 61,900 Pepco customers lost power during the storm, and Prince George's was hit especially hard, Dobkin said. About 1,000 Pepco customers were without power late last night, according to Pepco's Web site, but Dobkin said all were expected to have power by this morning.

Baltimore Gas and Electric, with 1.2 million customers in seven counties, including Howard and Anne Arundel, reported that about 170,000 customers had lost power, with the biggest number in Anne Arundel. Almost 16,000 were in the dark about 11 p.m. Spokeswoman Linda Foy said earlier in the day that power would be fully restored by tonight.

In Northern Virginia, about 300 customers lacked power late last night, down from 4,500 in the morning. Saturday night, a total of 107,000 customers in the area lost power, mostly in Springfield and Woodbridge.

Staff writers Daniel DeVise, Susan Levine, Mary Otto, Ian Shapira, William Wan and Martin Weil contributed to this report.