Emergency officials rescued one person who was trapped in an elevator at a home for senior citizens near Charles Town, W.Va., after a power outage, said Ed Smith, chief of the Independent Fire Co. The elevator was in the Sycamore Circle facility in Willow Springs Village along U.S. 340 east of Charles Town.
Mordington Avenue in Charles Town was closed to traffic Wednesday afternoon after an electrical transformer caught fire, Charles Town Police said. In the 400 block of East Liberty Street, a large tree fell and crushed the rear of a car, and on Egle Avenue, a large tree fell, knocking down several utility poles, Capt. Doug Nichols said.
Also in the 500 block of East Liberty Street, a tree fell on a house, bringing power lines down with it, Nichols said.
People in the house were evacuated until power in the area could be cut off, Nichols said.
Sprint spokeswoman Yvonne Butts-Mitchell said power outages late Wednesday afternoon in the Bino area of Greencastle, Pa., and in Shippensburg, Pa., forced technicians to bring gasoline-powered generators to those areas.
Customers do not typically see a disruption in phone service when the electricity goes out because phones automatically switch to battery backup, Butts-Mitchell said. Because of the extent of the ice storm, she predicted power would not be restored quickly and the generators would be necessary to keep the batteries running.
Transportation
There were no flights in or out of Hagerstown Regional Airport on Wednesday morning but they resumed Wednesday afternoon after runways were cleared, Airport Manager Carolyn Motz said.
Some Maryland Rail Commuter riders had to wait up to 30 minutes for morning trains, officials said. A train on MARC's Penn Line struck a downed tree between Baltimore and Washington, but there were no injuries, the agency said.
MARC ran reduced schedules on its Camden and Brunswick lines to allow for weather-related maintenance.
Staff writers Tamela Baker, Richard F. Belisle, Candice Bosely, Stacey Danzuso, Dave McMillion and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
