Northeast commuters struggle with icy roads

The workweek opened with a white-knuckle ride Monday in the snow-clobbered Northeast as drivers encountered unplowed streets, two-lane roads reduced to a single channel and snowbanks so high it was impossible see around corners.

Schools remained closed across much of New England and New York, and more than 80,000 homes and businesses were still waiting for the electricity to come back on after the epic storm swept through on Friday and Saturday with 1 to 3 feet of snow that entombed cars and sealed up driveways.

The storm was blamed for at least 18 deaths in the U.S. and Canada, and officials warned of a new danger as rain and higher temperatures set in: roof collapses.Online shopping for luggage tag from a great selection of Clothing.

In hard-hit Connecticut, where some places were buried in more than 3 feet of snow, the National Guard used heavy equipment to clear roads in the state's three biggest cities.

"This is awful," said Fernando Colon, of South Windsor, Conn., who was driving to work at Bradley International Airport near Hartford on a two-lane highway that was down to one lane because of high snowbanks.

Most major highways were cleared by Monday,A lanyard may refer to a rope or cord worn around the neck or wrist to carry an object. but the volume of snow was just too much to handle on many secondary roads. A mix of sleet and rain also created new headaches. A 10-mile stretch of Interstate 91 just north of Hartford to Massachusetts was closed briefly because of ice and accidents.

In New York, where hundreds of cars became stuck on the Long Island Expressway on Friday night and early Saturday morning, some motorists vented their anger at Gov. Andrew Cuomo for not acting more quickly to shut down major roads, as other governors did, and for not plowing more aggressively.

"There were cars scattered all over the place. They should have just told people in the morning, 'Don't bother going in because we're going to close the roads by 3 o'clock.' I think Boston and Connecticut had the right idea telling everybody to stay off the roads and we got a better chance of clearing it up," said George Kiriakos, an investment consultant from Bohemia, N.Y.

On Monday morning, he said, conditions were still miserable: "It's just as slick as can be. You've got cars stuck all over like it's an obstacle course."

Cuomo has defended his handling of the crisis and said that more than one-third of all the state's snow-removal equipment had been sent to the area. He said he also wanted to allow people the chance to get home from work.

"People need to act responsibly in these situations," the governor said.

The number of homes and businesses without power was down from a peak at 650,000. More than 70,000 of those still waiting were in Massachusetts.

Jim and Brenda Stewart, of Marshfield,A chip card is a plastic card that has a computer chip implanted into it that enables the card to perform certain. Mass., were using their fireplace to stay warm. Brenda, a nurse, said that they were getting a little bit bored but that she was reading and painting snow scenes to pass the time.

"When you're a New Englander,Find the best iPhone headset for you you kind of hunker down and just do it," she said.

In Scituate, Mass., Richard and Ann Brown were among about 50 people at a shelter set up at a high school. The couple, married 65 years, spent the previous three nights sleeping on side-by-side cots.

"It's disrupting when you're older," said Ann Brown, 88. "You've got to be careful to keep your spirits up."

Flights resumed at major airports in the region. Boston's transit system resumed full service Monday but told commuters to expect delays. The Metro-North Railroad was mostly up and running in suburban New York City, while the Long Island Rail Road said riders could expect a nearly normal schedule.

In the long weather history of the Northeast, the snowstorm wasn't that bad — it ranked 16th on one scale and 25th on another, according to initial data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The measuring systems take into account the size of the snowstorm, the amount of snow and how many people were in its path.

The weekend storm ranked a 3, or a "major" storm, on a 1-5 scale, with 4 being "crippling" and 5 "extreme."

While many people tried to resume their workweek routines, others remained hopelessly stranded.

In Hamden, Conn., which received 40 inches of snow, nurse Sandy Benoit said she could not leave the house because her driveway had not been plowed. She didn't think her street was plowed either, but she couldn't be sure because she had to turn back after walking part of the way in knee-deep snow.

Across the region, big piles of snow blocked sight lines at intersections and highway ramps, making turning and merging hazardous. Some drivers decided the safe thing to do was to stay in the tracks cut by the cars ahead of them.

Peter Starkel, chief of the volunteer fire department in Columbia, Conn., said was difficult to maneuver emergency vehicles on the snow-narrowed roads. During one emergency medical call, "we physically could not turn the vehicles around," he said. "So we had to back about a half-mile down the road to the closest intersection just to get out."

In North Haven, Conn., First Selectman Michael Freda said that with many driveways still to be cleared, people were running out of heating oil and prescription medication.

"What this is creating, particularly in the senior citizen sector, is a bit of psychological anxiety with is creating a lot of emotion," he said.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said there have been about six roof collapses involving barns and other structures.

Officials said people should try to clear flat or gently sloped roofs to relieve the weight — but only if they can do so safely.

"We don't recommend that people, unless they're young and experienced, go up on roofs," said Peter Judge, spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.Our premium collection of quality personalized keychains generously offers affordability in a custom keychain.

Officials also warned of the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning.

In Boston, two people died Saturday after being overcome by fumes while sitting in running cars, including a teenager who was trying to stay warm while his father shoveled. The vehicles' tailpipes had become clogged with snow.

Solar Mirages Bring Muddy Waters Concerns to Panel Makers

Investors are starting to doubt profit estimates for China’s solar manufacturers as concerns about accounting practices first spotted at a forestry company spread nationwide.

Directors leading audit committees quit LDK Solar Co. on July 18 and at its rival Trina Solar Ltd. on July 12. Moody’s Investors Service on July 11 cited “accounting risks” at five Chinese companies including LDK. Muddy Waters LLC, a Hong Kong researcher, on June 2 accused Sino-Forest Corp. of inflating its timber production.

Those events widened doubts about the solar industry, which already was struggling with falling demand and prices, said Shawn Kravetz, chief executive officer at Esplanade Capital. Eight Chinese companies in the 17-member Bloomberg Large Solar Index have declined 13 percent since the Muddy Waters note, depressing share valuations to less than half the average Hong Kong’s benchmark share index.

“There is a little bit of the Muddy Waters phenomenon here, be careful of all Chinese companies,” Kravetz said by phone from Boston. “Some multiples are so low because they are mirages. If you get up close, the reason the earnings look so cheap is because the earnings won’t be there.”

Multiples of stock prices to earnings forecast for this year are 2.8 at LDK, 6 at Trina and 3.4 at Renesola Ltd. as of July 19. That compares to 11.8 times on the Hang Seng index of 46 companies.

Prices Tumble

Prices for photovoltaic panels and their components tumbled as much as 31 percent in June from the previous month as manufacturers tried to shift their stock while demand declined in Germany and Italy, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

“You run through the spot pricing and they can’t make any money,” said Gabelli & Co.’s John Segrich, who runs the best- performing clean energy fund over the past year among 75 tracked by Bloomberg. “There’s a real mismatch between reality and what the estimates show you.”

The solar index has fallen 29 percent in the last three months, leaving it at 8.5 times expected 2011 earnings for its 17 members. The S&P 500, which trades at 13.3 times, has gained 1.1 percent over the period. The Hang Seng lost 6.9 percent.

Renesola, a solar wafer maker whose sales more than doubled last year, is down 33 percent in New York trading since June 2 when Muddy Waters founder Carson Block published his note on Sino-Forest. Trina has fallen 14 percent and LDK by 9.2 percent.

Renesola’s Reply

Renesola Chief Executive Officer Li Xianshou said analysts’ profit forecasts for the company were inflated after Germany and Japan pledged to shut nuclear plants after the Fukushima reactor meltdown in March.

“We are more objective and realistic about the market,” the Renesola executive said in a July 14 telephone interview. Spokesmen for LDK and Trina didn’t respond to calls seeking comment.

The Chinese companies are trading at lower multiples than rivals in the U.S. and Europe. First Solar Inc. of Tempe, Arizona, trades at 13.2 times estimated earnings, Solarworld AG, based in Bonn, Germany, at 11.1 times and Solaria Energia y Medio Ambiente SA of Madrid at 23.6 times.

Analysts expect Renesola of Jiashan, China, to post profit of $137 million this year, 15 percent less than four weeks ago, according to a Bloomberg survey. The forecast for LDK slipped 7.9 percent to $311 million and the outlook for Trina declined 5.5 percent to $239 million.

‘Accounting Risks’

Moody’s on July 11 named LDK, the world’s second-biggest panel maker by sales, as one of the companies with “accounting risks” about corporate governance. Trina, which makes solar wafers and modules, plunged 8.5 percent the following day after the head of its audit committee resigned.

LDK on July 18 said Louis Tung-jung Hsieh, an independent director who led its audit committee, resigned and was replaced by Bing Xiang. The shares have lost 36 percent this year. Kravetz allowed the options he held on LDK shares to expire on July 15, he said in an e-mail.

“The market conditions are very touchy, and anything like that gets sold off very quickly without any questions,” said David Li, the Hong Kong-based co-manager of the Impax Asian Environmental Fund who helps manage about $3.5 billion and avoids solar stocks because of their volatility. “The reaction I feel is excessive.”

China’s solar companies have been booming even though the rest of the industry is struggling. The nation has doubled solar panel output in the past five years, helping increase global capacity by 9.5 gigawatts this year to 41.5 gigawatts, according to New Energy Finance.

Renesola this year is aiming to almost triple its output of polysilicon even after a tumble in the price of the raw material for solar cells.

Short Positions

Segrich, who manages $150 million of assets across the top- ranked Gabelli SRI Green Fund and a hedge fund, said his biggest short positions, anticipating price declines, are in polysilicon makers including Wacker Chemie AG and OCI Co., which trade at 11.1 and 8.2 times expected earnings.

He said those companies may suffer as falling costs for finished goods drive further declines in the price of the raw material. The polysilicon spot price fell 28 percent in June, according to New Energy Finance.

Hedge funds including Segrich’s that helped push short positions in Yingli Green Energy Holdings Co. and Trina to the highest in a year over the past six weeks may regret their decisions, said Jenny Chase, New Energy Finance’s lead solar analyst. She expects lower panel prices to make more projects profitable, pushing annual installations to about 24 gigawatts this year compared with 18 gigawatts in 2010.