giveNow_Button
News Regional & State News Utility crews working to restore power to tens of thousands in PA
Monday, 29 August 2011 16:40

Utility crews working to restore power to tens of thousands in PA

Written by  Mary Wilson

(Harrisburg) -- The state Public Utility Company reports some 385,400 Pennsylvania homes are without electricity. Power companies say getting everybody back on the grid again could take all week. Utilities are updating their websites with power outage maps, and eastern Pennsylvania is covered with outage dots. Scott Surgeoner is spokesman for First Energy, which owns Met Ed and Penelec. He says storm damage crews have their work cut out for them. "Replace probably more than 200 poles, more than 400 spans of wire that have come down," he says. "There are places in our area, our territory where we have not been able to assess the damage yet due to down trees across the road and or flooding." In the northeast, Met-Ed has taken to the skies to assess the areas around Easton and Stroudsburg by helicopter, because the roads are blocked due to flooding and felled trees. First Energy says it doesn’t know when it will be able to restore power for its customers. PPL is saying three to five days for its hardest hit areas – around Lehigh Valley, Lancaster, and Harrisburg. In the midstate, some 38,000 people were without power, as of 4:00 p.m. Monday. Five people have been killed in incidents related to Hurricane Irene, including one in the midstate.

Add comment


Security code
Refresh

Stay Connected to witf

Ticket Giveaway Button
ListenLIVE_Button
WatchNow_Button

Support for witf is provided by:

Become a witf sponsor today »

Latest News from NPR

Support for witf is provided by:

Become a witf sponsor today »