PPL Electric Utilities crews continue working around the clock to restore service following the severe storms that moved through the service territory over the weekend.

Since Friday, PPL has restored power to more than 196,000 customers, and repair efforts continue for about 67,000 customers who remain without service, according to Jane George, Regional Affairs Director, PPL.

“This storm is among the 10 most impactful weather events in PPL Electric’s history,” George said. “More than 2,000 personnel are working around the clock, and we’ve already restored power to more than 196,000 customers.

“We understand how difficult it is to be without power, especially during the summer heat, and we encourage customers to continue checking our outage map and mobile app for updated restoration times. Above all, safety remains our top priority — if you see a downed wire, stay far away and assume it’s energized.”

George noted that additional storms overnight created roughly 300 new locations requiring repairs.

She said more than 2,000 personnel are supporting restoration efforts, including PPL employees, contractors, forestry crews, damage assessors and mutual assistance crews from utilities across the United States and Canada. Additional resources continue to arrive and are being deployed to some of our hardest-hit areas.

“We understand how difficult and disruptive extended outages can be, particularly during periods of hot weather,” George said. “While many customers will have their power restored sooner, this remains a multiday restoration effort, with work expected to continue through Wednesday. As crews complete damage assessments and begin making repairs in specific locations, estimated restoration times will continue to be refined and updated.

“As restoration progresses, the work that remains is often the most complex. Many of the remaining outages involve multiple repairs, including clearing fallen trees, replacing damaged poles, rebuilding sections of electric wire and repairing equipment at several locations before service can be safely restored. Safety must come first, and crews carefully inspect and repair the system before power is restored to customers.”

George encouraged customers to stay connected by visiting pplelectric.com/outage, using the PPL Electric mobile app or signing up for outage alerts at pplelectric.com/alerts. Customers can also report outages by texting “Outage” to TXTPPL (898775).

She said safety remains their top priority, and added customers should always assume a downed wire is energized and stay far away from it. Downed wires should be reported immediately to PPL Electric or local emergency responders.

During an outage, customers should use flashlights instead of candles, operate generators outdoors and away from enclosed spaces, and check on elderly neighbors or others who may need assistance, said George, who added customers who rely on electricity for medical equipment should have an emergency plan in place and contact 9-1-1 if assistance is needed.

George said PPL also recognize the challenges customers face during summer heat. For this event, PPL Electric has waived its normal 24-hour outage requirement for its ice and water reimbursement program. Customers may receive a bill credit for up to three gallons of water and three 10-pound bags of ice per day during the outage event by submitting itemized receipts and their account number to PPL Electric.

“Most importantly, our crews remain committed to restoring power safely and as quickly as possible,” she said. “We know being without power is frustrating, and we won’t stop working until every customer who can safely receive service has their power restored.”

Region affected

As of midafternoon Saturday, Lehighton Borough posted on its Facebook page that power had been restored to the majority of town.

As the remaining homes may have suffered damage to private property, the borough encouraged homeowners to call a professional electrician to service personal damage to restore power.

Those who believe that their home needs attention from the utility provider are asked to comment on the borough’s Facebook post, and/or call the Communication Center Non-Emergency number at 570-325-9123.

The Lehighton Recreation Center on Eighth Street opened at noon Saturday for those who have powered medical devices, needed to charge their phones, or wanted to escape the heat.

As of just before 10 a.m. Saturday, the borough posted on its Facebook page that 90% of the north end of town was without power, and borough crews were working diligently to restore power to as many residents as soon as possible.

The borough opened its recreation center for residents of the borough without power after a fast-moving thunderstorm early Friday evening knocked down trees throughout Carbon County.

Monroe County hit

Monroe County had a double hit, with more than 8,500 without electricity Friday night and then a storm Saturday night affected the East Stroudsburg/Bushkill area.

A Red Cross Emergency Shelter is open at J.M. Hill Elementary School for community members of Smithfield Township and Middle Smithfield Township. Giant Food stores in that area has free water available for residents.

Temperatures,

humidity

A big heat dome was what primarily led to the recent heat wave, according to Peyton Simmers, a meteorologist with AccuWeather,

Simmers said the heat wave started to relieve itself somewhat on Saturday, as the heat dome started to weaken itself.

“That’s when we introduced more of the thunderstorms with it,” Simmers said. “We had widespread thunderstorms develop pretty much everywhere on July Fourth, but Lehighton and Carbon County looked like they had two rounds of storms.”

He said there were between 100 to 150 wind reports in Northeastern Pennsylvania alone.

“There were a ton of power outages as well,” he said. “A very stormy Fourth of July.”

Some areas did break some heat records, while cities such as New York and Philadelphia tied some of their records, Simmers said.

“It’s not too common to get five days in a row (of extreme heat), but not something unheard of,” he said. “It was just a really classic July heat wave.”

One that brought plenty of humidity, noted Simmers.

“It was really the most humid weather we had all summer,” he said. “This was the first true taste of summer.”

Simmers said today could produce more thunderstorms, which could potentially lead to some flash flooding.

“As we move into the remainder of the week, it’s still going to be pretty humid,” he said. “There’s also going to be pop up thunderstorms as well, (but) not nearly as hot as it was last week.”

Simmers said high temperatures Monday and Tuesday should top out in the low to mid 70s, with highs in the low to mid 80s Wednesday through Friday, and continuing to hold in the 80s over the weekend.