CLARKS SUMMIT - Standing outside her front door at 525 Summit Ave. in Clarks Summit, Cindy Best stared at the gaping hole in her front yard, where a "huge oak tree" stood for years.
"I'm still shocked," Ms. Best said. "Shocked - but thankful."
Shocked because the huge tree collapsed at 2 a.m. Tuesday, bringing down a nearby power line with it and creating a "thunderous boom" that echoed throughout the neighborhood.
Thankful because it didn't fall toward her home, where she said it would have crushed her while she was sleeping.
"We got lucky," she said. "We only lost power."
Thousands of residents in the Abingtons communities, including Ms. Best, are without power - and could be for several days as the area recovers from the superstorm that began as Hurricane Sandy.
Trees, transformers
As of 11:05 p.m. Tuesday, 2,243 customers in Dalton were without power - second in Lackawanna County behind Moscow's 3,127. Meanwhile, 2,064 customers in South Abington Twp., 818 customers in Ransom Twp. and 245 customers in Clarks Summit are without power. In Lackawanna County, there are 13,305 outages.
"Right now, we are still in the initial stages of restoring power," PPL spokesman Rich Beasley said. "At this point, we don't have firm estimates of when our customers will get their power back."
In addition to the downed trees along the Morgan Highway, at least two blown transformers - one at 1200 W. Grove St. in Clarks Summit - contributed to the spike in the number of area power outages.
Also, more than 10 trees fell on power lines in the Abingtons communities, while several others hit homes or buildings, Mr. Beasley said. He said he believed that no one in the Abingtons communities was injured during the storm, and that the physical damage to the area "isn't as bad as we expected."
"There were pretty big trees that ripped down power lines along the Morgan Highway," South Abington Twp. Manager David O'Neill said. "That is being looked at right now, but work hasn't started on it just yet.
"We are lucky we didn't get the heavy rains that were predicted or else it would be even worse."
Hierarchy
As far as the restoration process, Mr. Beasley said there is a "three-level hierarchy" officials use to determine what order outages are addressed.
First on that list, he said, are any "matters of immediate public safety," such as hospitals, emergency management locations, police stations or fire departments.
From there, officials will address "high-voltage transmission lines," which serve a significant number of customers, he said. Once that's completed, electricians will turn their attention to how they can "get the biggest number of customers back in service in the shortest period of time."
But just how quickly power is restored also depends on how long the poor weather continues.
"If the strong winds continue, it increases the chance that those trees or limbs already damaged will fall," Mr. Beasley said. "Plus, the winds and heavy rain make it difficult for our crew."
Contact the writer: miorfino@timesshamrock.com, miorfinoTT on Twitter