Severe Winter Weather Conditions Cause Power Outages in Pennsylvania

In Pennsylvania, residents are without power due to winter storm Nika. The mixture of heavy storm, ice, and cold air conditions from Illinois to Maine has constantly brought many serious problems such as this for U.S. households. This specific storm brought freezing rain in southeast Pennsylvania leading to the widespread power outage as well as tree damage.
"A half-inch accumulation of ice on power lines can add 500 pounds of extra weight. Ice can also increase the weight of branches by 30 times, significantly increasing the potential for breaking and falls. As a result, more than 1 million customers lost power at the storm's peak, 850,000 of them in Pennsylvania."

http://www.weather.com/news/commuter-conditions/winter-storm-nika-ice-power-outages-pennsylvania-20140205