Thousands of people across the region spent the night in the dark, dealing with freezing cold after losing power.
The second winter storm this week knocked out electricity to almost entire counties and caused traffic problems from major highways to small side streets thanks to downed trees and icy conditions.
A day after the storm hundreds of schools remained closed including Villanova University, which remained closed through the weekend.
Spots that melted during the day Wednesday refroze overnight as heavy winds gusted to 20 mph, creating the risk of even more outages due to trees toppling on power lines.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett issued a State of Emergency for Pennsylvania Wednesday night as thousands of residents across the region remain in the dark. Montgomery County also declared a State of Emergency following the storm.
Early Thursday morning, about 430,000 homes and businesses remained without power, down from a peak of 849,000 Wednesday, Corbett said in a briefing at the headquarters of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency outside Harrisburg.
Corbett said he has signed a disaster emergency proclamation, freeing up state agencies to use all available resources and personnel. Corbett plans to tour hard-hit Blue Bell, Montgomery County Thursday so he gets a first-hand look at the damage.
"People are going to have to have some patience at this point,'' Corbett said, warning that an overnight refreeze could cause more problems on the roads Thursday.
While some of the ice melted on Wednesday, many of those same areas refroze early Thursday due to the cold temperatures.
"As we go overnight and into Thursday morning, refreezing will be taking place," said NBC10 First Alert Weather Meteorologist Sheena Parveen. "Any snow that's melted, wet sidewalks or roadways will be refreezing again because temperatures will be dropping down below freezing as we go overnight."
Sheena says temperatures won't go much above freezing, if at all, over the next three days which will limit the amount of melting.
Temperatures were the low 20s in Philly and the teens in the North and West suburbs overnight. Temps should struggle to get to 30 during the days before dropping back between the teens and low 20s during the night on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
That's bad news for thousands of customers left in the dark.
The icy conditions from the second storm knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of customers -- more than 83 percent of PECO customers in Chester County alone at one point -- around the region as ice weighed down power lines and caused branches to break.
PECO, worked through the night to restore power to more than 500,000 customers, warning that it could take until the weekend for some people to get their electricity back.
Due to the refreezing and gusty winds, there could be even more outages over the next few days.
"The weight of the snow and ice on some of the tree branches may cause some more to break," said NBC10 First Alert Weather Chief Meteorologist Glenn "Hurricane" Schwartz.
Widespread Power Outages
PECO officials said it could take multiple days to make all the repairs and, for some customers in heavily damaged areas, power could remain out through the weekend.
The widespread outages led the American Red Cross of Southeastern Pennsylvania to open warming centers in the area.
In Chester County, residents without power can head to Lionville Middle School at 550 W. Uwchlan Ave., Exton or Avon Grove High School at 257 State Road, West Grove. In Bucks County, the Red Cross has setup a warming center location at Maple Point Middle School at 2250 Langhorne Yardley Road, Langhorne.
The centers are providing food, drinks and other comfort items like soap, but residents are encouraged to bring books, games or other items to pass the time. Pets are also welcome. If you see exposed wires, don't touch them -- instead call your local utility provider.
Aside from knocking out power, the downed trees damaged vehicles and homes, causing injuries as one man was crushed by a falling limb.
About 1/2 of an inch of ice fell in Wayne, Delaware County as Northeast Philadelphia and Trenton, N.J. reported nearly 1/3 of an inch of ice.
The icy mess caused wrecks around the region including crashes and downed trees on the Schuylkill Expressway (I-76), Route 30 and the Pa. Turnpike. A tree sprawled across U.S. Route 1 northbound at Maple Avenue in Bucks County causing delays.
Plenty of local roads were blocked by trees and, with power knocking out traffic signals, drivers should treat those intersections as four-way stops.
It wasn't much better on the rails. Amtrak suspended service between Philly and Harrisburg through Thursday morning and up to four of SEPTA's Regional Rail lines were suspended with the closure of the Paoli/Thorndale and Cynwyd Lines continuing through Thursday morning.
"The issues that we’re having right now are trees," said SEPTA deputy general manager Jeff Knueppel during the height of the storm.
SEPTA said to track delays and cancellations on the SEPTA website but the site slowed to a snail's pace Wednesday due to heavy web traffic.
More Snow Coming
A third system will move into the area over the weekend with the potential for more winter weather. Glenn says it's too early to determine how bad it will be however.
"I wouldn't call it a storm at this point," he said. "It's the next chance of some snow."