Scattered PPL power outages throughout Lackawanna County from Superstorm Sandy may not be fully restored until Saturday afternoon, a spokesman for the utility said Wednesday.
Customers of PPL Electric Utilities in the harder-hit Poconos of Monroe County and the Lehigh Valley area may not get power fully restored until 11 p.m. Sunday, said company spokesman Rich Beasley.
"We have a much clearer picture now of the scope of the damage out there," Mr. Beasley said. "We are working to come up with some accurate times of restoration of service."
Crews were out in force Wednesday throughout the region and will be again today, working to fix power outages and road closures.
For PPL, Sandy ranks in the top five storms in terms of the number of power outages, he said.
"This has been a devastating storm," Mr. Beasley said. "We have a lot of work that needs to be done. It's time-consuming. It's sometimes hazardous and we're asking for the patience of our customers that are waiting for the restoration of service."
While it may be of little comfort to those without electricity, PPL and other utilities in the area have restored power to thousands of customers. PPL brought in 2,000 line-maintenance workers from out-of-state to complement its own workforce of 2,350, Mr. Beasley said.
"We've made excellent progress," he said.
More than 91,600 customers of the three major utilities serving the seven county area remained without power Wednesday. Monroe, Pike and Wayne counties were some of the harder-hit areas with outages.
As of 6:15 p.m. Wednesday, PPL had 63,059 outages remaining in Lackawanna (8,930), Luzerne (2,178), Monroe (26,924), Pike (9,980), Susquehanna (218), Wayne (14,636) and Wyoming (193) counties.
And as of 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, First Energy had 27,819 outages remaining in Monroe (16,431), Pike (9,894), Susquehanna (651), Wayne (604) and Wyoming (239) counties.
UGI Utilities went from 17,492 customers, mostly in Luzerne County, without power Tuesday to 731 Wednesday, and was hoping to have all power restored by today, UGI spokesman Don Brominski said.
"Our crews made great headway and they did an awesome job. We had extra crews on hand and it worked well. And most importantly, it was done safely," Mr. Brominski said.
Restoration of power often led to the reopening of roads. That's because most road closures were caused by power lines downed by wind-blown trees and limbs, said PennDOT spokesman James May.
"More roads are being opened than being closed," Mr. May said of his agency's progress. "We hit that point, probably last night (Tuesday), at which the roads going off our alert list were greater than roads going on our list."
There also were no reports of structural damage to state roads or bridges, Mr. May said.
County emergency management agencies have not yet compiled cost estimates of damage, but some said they don't expect to see huge dollar amounts.
Luzerne County EMA Director Stephen Bekanich said, "If I had to hazard a guess as to damage, I would say it's less than $250,000 at this point. It wasn't significant at all compared to what we had last year (flooding). This storm has been very minor as far physical damages to homes and businesses. The inconvenience to people with power outages and roads closed has been comparable to other storms we've had, but in terms of physical damage to property, it's been pretty low."
Wyoming County EMA Director Gene Dziak said, "I don't think you're going to see big numbers out of Wyoming County. We didn't dodge a bullet, we dodged a grenade."
Susquehanna County's EMA also said there was no reported structural damages. Wayne County's EMA did not have damage estimates as of yet, and efforts to reach Pike County's EMA were unsuccessful.
In harder-hit Monroe County, emergency planner Mary Ellen Keegan said, "Municipalities are still in the response phase. We are working on getting damage-assessing teams out in the next couple of days or so."
Lackawanna County EMA Director Bob Flanagan also had no damage estimates yet.
"The utility work is the biggest thing at this point," Mr. Flanagan said. "We have to keep a track of where power is still out, because we have to open warming or recharging shelters."
UGI also reported that it had not experienced any storm-related interruptions of service to its Penn Natural Gas company's 158,000 customers in 13 counties throughout northeastern and central Pennsylvania that includes parts of Lackawanna and Luzerne counties.
In Scranton, the DPW incurred overtime both before and after the storm, though the amount has not yet been calculated, said DPW Director Mark Dougher.
"We did some pre-planning overtime with leaves, drains and sandbags. We thought we were going to have rain," said Mr. Dougher. Instead, the city had its share of felled tree limbs that had to be cleared, he said.
Meanwhile, several school districts that were closed Wednesday will remain closed today, They include Abington Heights in Lackawanna County, Delaware Valley and Wallenpaupack Area in Pike County, and Wayne Highlands and Western Wayne in Wayne County.
In the Abingtons, there was no electricity at Tina Venturi's home in Dalton but she was still at work Wednesday at the Dalton Post Office. The 23-year employee said that though the office was running on a generator, it would remain open.
"No matter what, the mail comes in and the mail goes out," she said.
Grocery stores were crowded with residents seeking bottled water and ice.
"I shouldn't complain because we have a generator," said Dalton resident Barb Tompkins, adding that she and her husband were hosting a few guests who weren't as fortunate. English muffin pizzas were on the menu for dinner Wednesday.
"We're living in luxury," she joked. "That's why we have company."
REBEKAH BROWN, staff writer, contributed to this report.
Contact the writer: jlockwood@timesshamrock.com
Red Cross opens warming stations
The American Red Cross and some local emergency management agencies have opened "warming stations" in Northeast Pennsylvania for residents who have no power to take a shower or recharge electronic devices.
Residents should bring their own toiletries and towels. The warming stations include the following:
- In Wayne County, the EMA has warming stations today from 5 to 8 p.m. at Honesdale High School, 459 Terrace St., and at Wallenpaupack South School, 989 Main St., Newfoundland; at the Evergreen School, Hamlin Highway (Route 191) in Hamlin, today and Friday from 6 to 8 a.m. and 4 to 9 p.m.; and at the YMCA in Honesdale, 105 Park St., weekdays from 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
In Monroe County, the American Red Cross and East Stroudsburg University have opened a "mega shelter" for local residents as well as displaced residents from New Jersey and New York. This shelter, at Koehler Fieldhouse arena, has 400 cots, supplies and food, and is expected to be open at least until Friday.
Contact the writer: jlockwood@timesshamrock.com
Historic storms
The roughly 400,000 power outages caused by Superstorm Sandy ranks the storm among the top five in the history of PPL Electric Utilities, spokesman Rich Beasley said.
Mr. Beasley said it will be third or fourth, depending on the final count. The others are:
1. September 2003, Hurricane Isabel: 495,000 outages
2. August 2011, Hurricane Irene: 428,000 outages
3. Oct. 31, 2011, snowstorm: 400,000 outages
4. September 1999, Hurricane Floyd: 282,000 outages
5. January 2005, winter storm: 231,000 outages