ALLENTOWN, Pa. (Sept. 21, 4 p.m. EDT) – An update on current power outages from Tropical Storm Isabel.
Situation: Working around the clock for nearly 72 hours, line crews and support personnel are tackling the most massive restoration effort in PPL Electric Utilities’ history, restoring service to more than 400,000 customers after Tropical Storm Isabel ripped through the area Thursday night (9/18).
The storm interrupted service to a total of about 490,000 customers. Five hundred line crews, including about 150 from contractors and other utilities from as far away as Iowa and Canada, are working to restore power to PPL Electric Utilities customers as soon as possible. As restoration work is completed in a region, crews are being redeployed to assist efforts in other regions.
Est. Restoration Times by Region:
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Region: Restored
Lehigh Region (including Bethlehem, Allentown): Late tonight
Bucks and Montgomery Region: Late tonight
Pocono Region (including Monroe, Pike, and Wayne counties): Monday afternoon
Hazleton/Carbon County/Schuylkill County Region: Monday evening
Susquehanna Region (including Lycoming, Snyder, Northumberland, Montour, Columbia, and Clinton counties): Monday evening
Harrisburg Region (including Dauphin, Cumberland, Juniata and Perry counties): Late Monday night
Lancaster Region (including York, Berks, Chester and Lebanon counties): Late Tuesday night
PPL crews will continue to work around the clock to restore power. It is important to remember that these are estimated restoration times. These regions could receive power earlier than this forecast.
Customers Restored: More than 400,000 as of 4 p.m. EDT Sunday (9/21)
Customers Without Power: 30,500 as of 4 p.m. EDT Sunday (9/21)
Affected Areas: Isabel affected the entire 29-county service area of PPL Electric Utilities with downed lines and power outages. The hardest hit area is south central Pennsylvania in the Harrisburg and Lancaster regions followed by the Schuylkill County.
Number of Repairs Pending: 1,600 jobs
Cause of Outages: Most of the damage from Isabel’s tropical-storm-force winds resulted from broken tree limbs and falling trees from outside the utility right of way around power lines where PPL Electric Utilities prunes trees.
Additional Information: Outage figures are updated continuously on PPL’s news media Web site: www.pplnewsroom.com. The Web site also lists contact information for each part of the company’s service area.
Customers should call PPL Electric Utilities’ toll free number, 800-342-5775 (800-DIAL PPL) to report outages, fallen wires or special needs.
Because so many of the outages are the result of fallen trees and tree limbs, in some places wires are on the ground. People should stay far away from fallen wires, even if they appear to be "dead." Call PPL Electric Utilities or 911 immediately.