We didn’t get the worst of the storm.
Northampton County and its communities fared well through Winter Storm Nika, when compared to other regions in Pennsylvania.
In our local area, Met-Ed reports no homes with power outages, but others in Pennsylvania will be spending days in the cold and dark, mainly because of ice that came with the storm. The weight of the ice on trees already strained with snow felled them onto power lines, or caused falling limbs to damage lines.
Last night Gov. Tom Corbett declared Pennsylvania in a state of emergency, because of the snow and ice storm.
PECO Energy, the largest power provider in the Philadelphia region, told NBC10.com the storm was the second worst in their history with over 600,000 customers without power at the height of the storm.
Wednesday night, PECO still had over 500,000 customers without service, according to spokeswoman Cathy Engel Menendez.
“While it’s down from the 623,000 customers who were impacted earlier today, we really want people to understand that there is significant damage that needs to be repaired,” Menendez said. “We will be working on this for many days to come.”
More than 161,000 customers were without power in Chester County, more than 118,000 in Montgomery County and more than 102,000 in Bucks County. PPL reported more than 60,000 customers without power, most of them in Lancaster County. PECO numbers alone put Winter Storm Nika among the utility’s worst outage incidents ever.
According to the Governor’s office, a total of 849,000 homes throughout PA were affected at the worst of it.
Gov. Tom Corbett said utility crews from out of state had been called in to help with the outages. About 1000 workers are being called in to assist local crews.
Disclaimer: On January 4, 2016, the owner of WestEastonPA.com began serving on the West Easton Council following an election. Postings and all content found on this website are the opinions of Matthew A. Dees and may not necessarily represent the opinion of the governing body for The Borough of West Easton.
