Thousands of households in the Philly suburbs are still without power after Friday’s wind storm

Thousands of households in Philadelphia’s collar counties remained without power a day after wind gusts downed trees and caused hundreds of electrical outages throughout the region.

About 5,602 customers, mostly in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties, still did not have electric service as of early Saturday afternoon, according to Peco spokesperson Tom Brubaker.

Nearly half the outages were due to fallen trees and branches interfering with electrical systems, Brubaker said. As a result, suburban counties saw far more outages than Philly, he said.

Winds registered as high as 62 mph Friday afternoon. Around 7 p.m., a pine tree fell on a Chestnut Hill apartment, CBS reported, while in Roxborough, a tree fell on a vehicle, sending two people to the hospital.

Temperatures plummeted into the 20s Friday night, and, according to Brubaker, about 80,000 homes lost power. Peco has since restored 93% of those lines, he said.

Crews faced challenges from the weather, with wind gusts frequently topping 40 mph, Brubaker said.

“When wind gusts are that high, we can’t take our bucket trucks to repair lines,” he said.

An additional 135 Peco employees from Virginia and North Carolina have traveled to the region to assist in the recovery, Brubaker said.

He said he expects most of the remaining outages to be resolved by Saturday evening, though “a few rural, isolated customers” may face longer waits.

A live update of the outages can be found at peco.com/outages/experiencing-an-outage/outage-map.