| NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some 715,000 eastern U.S. homes and businesses were without power as of 9 a.m. EST on Thursday, an increase of nearly 43,000 from Wednesday night, after a nor'easter knocked power out to more customers following those who had lost power due to Hurricane Sandy, the U.S. Department of Energy said in a report. Combined peak outages now total 8.6 million, 8.5 million from Hurricane Sandy and 92,400 from the nor'easter, the DOE report said. (Reporting By Jeanine Prezioso; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick) |