BETHLEHEM, Pa. — More than 3,000 utility workers spread across eastern and central Pennsylvania in what PPL Electric Utilities said Tuesday was its largest restoration effort since Superstorm Sandy hit the region in 2012.
Line workers, forestry crews, damage assessors and contractors came from Rhode Island, Kentucky, Florida, Texas and Alabama – along with crews from Canada – to help restore power after multiple rounds of severe weather during the Fourth of July holiday weekend, the utility said.
The mutual assistance response shows the scale of one of the most significant storm events in PPL's history, with more than 264,000 customers losing power over the weekend after multiple rounds of severe weather, according to the utility.
Some parts of the Lehigh Valley were hit particularly hard. In Allentown, damaging winds swept through several neighborhoods, destroying mature trees along West Park’s south-central border.
Most of those trees had lived more than a century since the park's 1908 planting, the West Park Civic Association said on Facebook.
In Whitehall, damaging winds pulled down trees and poles and left wires arcing just off Mechanicsville Road near the Whitehall-Coplay School District campus.
As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 20,000 outages remained across PPL’s service area; 154 customers in Lehigh County remained offline, while thousands of outages were in hard-hit areas of Lancaster and Cumberland counties, west of the Lehigh Valley.
Since restoration efforts began, more than 245,000 customers had their power restored, PPL said. The utility also said it remained ahead of schedule to restore power to at least 95% of impacted customers by 11 p.m. Tuesday; nearly all remaining customers' power is expected to be restored by 11 p.m. Wednesday.
“We know every remaining outage represents a customer, family or business waiting to get back to normal,” Christine Martin, president of PPL Electric Utilities, said in a news release.
“While we've restored service to the vast majority of customers affected by these storms, our work isn't finished," Martin said. "We're continuing to deploy every available resource to restore power safely to those who remain without service as quickly as possible."
We're continuing to deploy every available resource to restore power safely to those who remain without service as quickly as possible."
PPL said its smart grid technology also reduced the storm's impact by automatically restoring service or preventing outages for more than 60,000 customers, allowing crews to focus on repairing the most heavily damaged parts of the electric grid.
The remaining outages are among the most difficult to repair, according to the company. Many require replacing multiple utility poles, clearing extensive tree damage and rebuilding damaged electrical equipment.
Those jobs often require several specialized crews working in sequence before power can be safely restored, the release said.
During Sandy, PPL executed its largest storm-restoration effort in company history, managing around 480,000 outages while assembling more than 5,000 personnel, including thousands from across the United States and Canada.
PPL said it plans to continue shifting personnel and equipment from areas where service has largely been restored into the hardest-hit communities.
The company also reminded customers that it will reimburse, through a bill credit, the cost of up to three gallons of water and three 10-pound bags of ice per day during the outage.
Customers can submit itemized receipts along with their account number to the PPL Ice and Water Program at 827 Hausman Road, Allentown, PA 18104.