BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Around 5,000 Lehigh Valley residents were still without power as of Friday morning as restoration efforts from Wednesday's storm stretched on.
The area faced brutal winds that knocked down tree limbs and wires from a severe thunderstorm Wednesday night.
The Lehigh Valley International Airport saw wind gusts near 50 mph according to data from the National Weather Service. Some customers received automated calls from PPL that said the storm caused damage to the power grid, which could prolong restoration efforts.
For a portion of customers, power restoration might not be reality until later Friday, but PPL director of communications Dana Burns said many customers got power restored faster than anticipated.
The electricity provider has hundreds of personnel responding to the storm damage, as well as 600 workers from outside the company to assist.
"Safety continues to be our priority."Dana Burns, PPL Director of Communications
“Safety continues to be our priority," Burns said Thursday. “Remember, should you encounter a downed wire at any time, assume it’s energized and stay away. Report downed wires to PPL Electric or local emergency response agencies. "
Wednesday's storm damaged more than 1,000 individual locations, the company told LehighValleyNews.com in an email, leaving 130,000 customers without power across PPL's service area.
By Friday morning, just 9,595 customers remained without power — that included 1,563 in Lehigh County and 1,560 in Northampton County.
Most areas in the PPL power outage map showed an approximate restoration time of 3 p.m. Friday, with some areas, like a patch on Haasadahl Road in Allentown and one near the Lehigh Valley Mall reporting an estimated restoration time of 11 p.m.
Met-Ed customers are also still facing outages.
In Lehigh County, fewer than 20 Met-Ed customers were still without power — all in Lynn Township. In Northampton County, 1,560 were still in the dark.
The Met-Ed power outage map also shows approximate repair times by 11 p.m. Friday.
