A day after a violent storm knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people in the area, thousands still remain in the dark. NBC10’s George Spencer has the story.
Violent storms knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses and now one of the region's largest electric utilities says some people will remain in the dark until Friday.
PECO Energy tells NBC10.com that it will take crews until the end of the week to get service restored to all customers affected by the powerful Tuesday night storm.
The severe line of thunderstorms barreled through the area around 7 p.m. Tuesday bringing torrential downpours and winds whipping up to 60 miles per hour.
"We just experienced a 65 mile per hour micro burst," said Jay Kimberly, a meteorology student who lives in the Port Richmond section of the city. "It blew metal and glass tables over six-foot fences. It came straight down and blew everything out of the way. Very scary indeed."
At the height of the storm more than 250,000 customers were left without power with the highest outages occurring in Chester County. But crews were able to cut that number by more than 100,000 by early Wednesday morning.
In Radnor, Pa., dozens of trees fell, taking down power lines and crashing into fences outside homes. In Yeadon, a large pine tree snapped along Lansdowne Avenue and crashed into a car that was waiting at a stop light.
"It just felt like something hit it," said the driver, Chris Lewis of Drexel Hill. "I saw the mirror fall so I knew something hit it, but I didn't know it was like that."
Lewis was not injured during the crash, though if the tree had landed only a few more inches in his direction, he very well could have been.
"Luckily nobody was in the backseat," Lewis said. "Thank God."
The storm forced SEPTA to suspend all service or operate partial service on three regional rail lines -- the Fox Chase, Chestnut Hill East and Paoli/Thorndale. Service was restored to all but the Chestnut Hill East line by Wednesday.
Here's a complete breakdown of the latest power numbers:
PENNSYLVANIA
PECO Energy
Chester County - 5,039
Caln Twp. - 138
Charlestown Twp. - 179
Coatesville City - 112
East Bradford Twp. - 159
East Fallowfield Twp. - 713
Schylkill Twp. - 106
Tredyffrin Twp. - 147
Uwchlan Twp. - 335
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West Caln Twp. - 903
West Goshen Twp. - 130
West Pikeland Twp. - 134
Westtown Twp. - 352
Willistown Twp. - 219
Delaware County - 1306
Brookhaven Boro - 145
Chester City - 170
Haverford Twp. - 124
Newtown Twp. - 147
Radnor Twp. - 285
Montgomery County - 2183
Abington - 710
Cheltenham Twp. - 120
Lower Merion Twp. - 238
Lower Moreland Twp. - 120
Perkiomen Twp. - 279
Springfield Twp. - 204
Upper Moreland Twp. - 107
Philadelphia County - 467
Bucks County - 2,747
Bensalem Twp. - 105
Bristol Twp. - 579
Falls Twp. - 645
Lower Makefield Twp. 211
Lower Southampton Twp. - 104
Middletown Twp. - 376
Upper Southampton Twp. - 156
Warwick Twp. - 190
PPL
Lancaster County - 554
DELAWARE
Delmarva Power
New Castle County - 237
Caroline - 174
NEW JERSEY
PSE&G
Burlington County - 109
Camden County - 350
Atlantic City Electric
Burlington County - 1105
Power Company Contact Info
DO NOT call 911 to tell emergency operators that your power is out. They will be dealing with real medical emergencies. You can use the following numbers to report your loss of power.
PECO
Emergency: 1-800-841-4141 (24 hour service)
Customer Service: 1-800-494-4000 (Mon through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sat. 9 p.m. to 1 p.m.)
PPL
Emergency: 1-800-DIAL-PPL (1-800-342-5775 (24 hour service)
Customer Service: 1-800-DIAL-PPL (1-800-342-5775) (Mon. through Fri. 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.)
Atlantic City Electric
Emergency: 1-800-833-7476
Customer Service: 1-800-642-3780
PSEG
Emergency: 800-436-PSEG (7734) (24 hour service)
Delmarva
Emergency: New Castle County (DE) and Cecil and Harford Counties (MD) 1-800-898-8042
Kent and Sussex Counties (DE) and the Eastern Shore of Maryland 1-800-898-8045
American Red Cross Southeastern Pennsylvania
Contact: 215-299-4000
