Commuter Conditions

Pennsylvania Power Outages Linger, Bus Crash Victims Recover Following Winter Storm Nika

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A commuter walks against blowing snow Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2014, in Chicago. Heavy, blowing snow is moving across much of Illinois as the state gets pelted by the latest round of winter weather. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)

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A commuter walks against blowing snow Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2014, in Chicago. Heavy, blowing snow is moving across much of Illinois as the state gets pelted by the latest round of winter weather. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)

Five days after Winter Storm Nika knocked down trees and snapped power lines, thousands of Pennsylvanians are still waiting for electricity, though power is gradually being restored to remaining customers.

Winter Storm Nika, which dumped ice and snow from Illinois to Maine last week, overran a layer of cold air near the surface of the earth in the Northeast late Tuesday night into Wednesday, weather.com meteorologist Chris Dolce said. "This resulted in freezing rain in southeast Pennsylvania that accumulated one-quarter to one-half inch, leading to tree damage and widespread power outages."

In the wake of Nika's messy snow and ice, a tour bus going too fast on a snow-covered road crashed in southwestern Pennsylvania Sunday, sending more than 20 passengers to the hospital with minor injuries, officials said.

(MORE: Snow and Ice Totals from Winter Storm Nika)

State police said that bus driver Terrence Harold Shultz, 65, lost control and crashed into an embankment around 2:20 p.m. on Route 220 in Cumberland Valley Township, about five miles from the Maryland border.

The bus was traveling "at a speed that was greater than is reasonable and prudent for the condition," according to the state police report. Officials did not say how fast the bus was traveling.

Twenty-six of the 33 passengers on the bus were taken to two hospitals in the area and all but three with minor injuries were treated and released, hospital officials said.

Western Maryland Health Systems spokeswoman Kathy Rogers said 15 patients were brought there and all but three with minor injuries were expected to be treated and released.

(MORE: Here's Why Ice Storms Are So Dangerous)

UPMC Bedford spokeswoman Susan Manko said 10 patients were treated and released from the hospital and one person declined treatment. A man who was originally said to have serious injuries was among those treated and released, Manko said.

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.

The Philadelphia area was hit the hardest. PECO alone reported 623,000 outages, making it the second-worst storm in the company's history, topped only by Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report