Over 47,000 remain without power as the Philly region prepares for another round of thunderstorms
The second round of storms are set to roll after 3 p.m. Wednesday, and will come with similarly strong winds and the potential for flooding.
Thousands are still without power Wednesday after thunderstorms and damaging winds swept through the Philadelphia region Tuesday. The worst part: Another round of storms is expected to roll through tonight.
Over 47,000 customers are without power as of noon Wednesday, Peco reported, down from more than 98,000 Tuesday night. The most outages remain in Chester County, according to numbers provided by a Peco spokesperson, where almost 44,000 customers still lack power. In Montgomery County, that number has fallen to 233. Just over 600 customers remain without power in Delaware County.
Peco could not immediately provide estimated restoration times for customers in the Philadelphia region. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Downed trees were reported throughout the area, including Bustleton, where a tree fell across Roosevelt Boulevard.
“PECO crews worked through the night restoring service and assessing the extensive damage to the local electric grid,” the spokesperson said via email.
Crews will first address outages impacting the greatest number of customers, said the spokesperson, before moving on to secondary lines at the neighborhood level and then service lines for individual homes and businesses. Around 200 field workers from Alabama, Indiana, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Virginia will be arriving to assist with restorations starting Wednesday afternoon, according to an emailed statement from Peco.
The outages also had lingering affects on public transit. Regional Rail service was suspended on the Paoli-Thorndale line between Thorndale and Malvern Stations from 9 p.m. Tuesday through 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to SEPTA spokesperson John Golden.
Service along the entire Fox Chase line also stopped after p.m. Tuesday, said Golden, but was “fully functional” by the Wednesday morning commuter rush.
Golden said the outages were “more than likely” caused by downed trees, and that SEPTA plans to have crews out tonight as another barrage of thunderstorms is forecast to hit the region.
As for when those thunderstorms will roll in? Sometime between 3 and 4 p.m., said Ray Martin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, and they’ll stick around through the evening.
“I’m afraid it looks like another round kind of similar to last night,” Martin said. He said wind speeds could reach up to 70 miles per hour, which — while typical for a strong summer storm — can cause some severe damage.
Martin also said that the region should prepare for localized flooding given the compounding effect of two days of rains.
“These storms are hit and miss,” said Martin, noting that it’s hard to predict where might be the hardest hit: “We’re not going to be able to know that until they’re on top of us.”