8 million without power as Sandy moves west (by Claudia Assis)

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - As Sandy moved west so did power outages. A U.S. Department of Energy update Tuesday afternoon added Kentucky to the list of states experiencing widespread blackouts, bringing the overall number of customers without power to 8.2 million from 8.1 million earlier in the day. New Jersey is still the hardest-hit state, with 65% of its customers without power. The update also shows additional power outages in New York and in states to the west, such as Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. Roughly a third of Connecticut and 23% of New York state customers are without power. Sandy made landfall in southern New Jersey Monday evening, with storm surges and high winds that crippled New York City and swaths of the East Coast. The hurricane, downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, is passing through southern Pennsylvania in a slower and weakened move westward. Sandy is expected to take a turn toward western New York Tuesday evening and move into Canada Wednesday. Sandy still packs some punch: maximum sustained winds of 45 miles per hour with higher gusts, the National Hurricane Center reported earlier Tuesday.